The level-up Reigate & Banstead project has received some fantastic support from local businesses.

The project is led by Raven Housing Trust with support from VARB and other community organisations and volunteers.  Over 850 laptops have now been refurbished and donated to children via schools (300 from Horley and 550 from the rest of R&B). 

Although the school lockdowns have lifted, the issue of digital exclusion is ongoing, so the project will continue throughout 2021.  We are still looking for donations of laptops.  

“If you work for a business that has spare laptops you'd like to donate, please get in touch ” 

All laptops are securely wiped or have their hard drive replaced before being refurbished and passed on via schools.  If a business is concerned about any data issues, we would be happy to talk to them about our data security processes.

• SGN (Horley) have donated 228 laptops
• First Community Health and Care (Redhill) donated 150 laptops
• Cubic Transportation Systems  (Redhill) donated 20 tablets
• Fidelity (Kingswood) have donated 7 laptops (and volunteer days)
• Dunottar School (Reigate) held a collection and donated 8 laptops
• Pfizer (Tadworth) provided funding to purchase parts

April's Learning Lunch on Wednesday 21 April 12-1pm. Come along to hear the ever popular Nicola Macdonald from Attractive Marketing talk about Marketing Strategy. She will explain how three little words will skyrocket your marketing results. 

A Restart Grant has been announced to support shops (non-essential retail), personal care businesses, such as hairdressers and beauty salons, as well as restaurants and pubs, accommodation, and leisure. Funding will be received from the Government in early April, and then distributed to eligible businesses.

The Restart Grant will support non-essential retail premises with one-off grants of up to £6,000, depending on the rateable value of the premises.

• 7 April, 14 April 10.00-14.00 The Business Hothouse  Planning. Managing and Growing my business Book your space
• 20 April 11.00-12.00 RH Networking Book your space.
• 20 April 09.30-10.45 Gatwick Diamond Business The Power of Community, Building your business connections
• 21 April 12.00-13.00 Reigate & Banstead Learning Lunch Marketing Strategies with Nicola Macdonald Book your space
• 21 April 10.00-12.00 Grants for Growth - Understand and apply for Invest4 grant with free 1-2-1 follow up Book your space 
• 12 May 11.00-12.00 RH Networking Book your space
• 19 May 12.00-13.00 Reigate & Banstead Learning Lunch, How to weatherproof your company with  Karen Espley Book your space
• 16 June 12.00-13.00 Reigate & Banstead Learning Lunch Book your space

Come to the Apprenticeship & Skills Hub surgeries to find out more about how appprenticeships and skills training can support your business.  Support will also be provided for individuals who wish to learn more about being an apprentice.
The surgeries will be hosted using Microsoft teams

First Session 15 April 10.00-11.00 (held fortnighly)

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council has been awarded £132,264 from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as part of their £56 million Welcome Back Fund.

The Funding will help councils prepare for the safe return of shoppers and tourists and can be used to:

• boost the look and feel of their high streets by investing in street planting, parks, green spaces and seating areas to make high streets as beautiful and welcoming as possible.
• Run publicity campaigns and prepare to hold events like street markets and festivals to support local businesses.
• Install signage and floor markings to encourage social distancing and safety.
• Improve high streets and town centres by planting flowers or removing graffiti.

Keep an eye on our website and social media channels to see how our town centres will benefit from this allocation.

The second issue of the quarterly Redhill Marketfield Way development newsletter is out now with an update on project progress to deliver a new cinema, commercial units and new homes, along with what’s coming up next and a chance to ‘meet’ the VINCI project team. 

You can also keep up to date by following VINCI’s dedicated project Twitter feed www.twitter.com/marketfieldway 

Visit our Supporting Local Business web pages for the latest business updates.

Information about Council services can be found on our website.

Follow RBBC on our social media channels.