The Millfields Trust want to take a moment to commend our wonderful tenants on their commitment, business acumen, diversity and bravery throughout this pandemic. A situation we hope not to see again in our lifetime for many reasons, but for business an incredibly difficult time for many. With a wide range of businesses residing at the Millfields Trust premises, some have been hit harder than others, but we are proud of you all for your commitment and perseverance.
During this time of uncertainty, we like most have had to adjust and adopt our working practices to ensure business continuity. Our priorities being our community of Stonehouse, our tenants and many of our stakeholders.
Throughout this time we have given support to our tenants and changed the way we do things through the following actions:
- Regular contact from all staff members, ensuring tenants know the support available from the Government regarding grant applications Many have welcomed a friendly chat as well
- We held a competition for a free office makeover
- We have given our own buildings and grounds a makeover
- We gave each tenant a “welcome back” gift after the first lockdown
- In partnership with Nudge provided Genesis as a base to increase Wi-Fi for the local Stonehouse community, thanks to Pete at Outersight
- We have a new outside meeting space for anybody to use
- We have financially supported tenants where possible
- We will not be increasing our rents this financial year to continue our financial support to tenants
- We supported tenants who have made the choice to reduce overheads and make the decision to work from home
- Our flexible office spaces have enabled us to accommodate tenants wishing to downsize or expand to meet business growth
- We have created additional co-working space to meet demand and social distancing guidelines with the added introduction of fixed desks
- We launched a new website and created regular blogs to keep our audience informed and up to date with our news
- We wrote to our members to ask if they needed any support
- We contributed to the `Small Business Toolkit` in partnership with the Devon Chamber
- We have produced our own Millfields Trust Business Start-up guide for people wishing to start their own business
- All of our buildings are Covid Secure, including our Conferencing facilities.
We have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure our business premises continue to work for all of our tenants and we very much look forward to the days when our buildings are once again bustling with activity.