Businesses in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland are being urged to sign up for a new Community Resilience Initiative to boost their resilience to emergencies like fire, flooding and outages.

The project is being spearheaded by the Local Resilience Forum and supported by Midlands-based risk experts Cambridge Risk Solutions.

The hopes of this initiative is to help local businesses develop a simple, easy-to-follow tool-kit for small and medium-sized businesses to enhance their own resilience.

Zafar Saleem, the Local Resilience Forum Executive Lead for Community Resilience, said: ' Emergencies like flooding or cyber attacks can happen at any time so it's crucial that local businesses identify the risks that might affect them and plan ahead.

'This project will give businesses the tools to be prepared, respond effectively and bounce back more quickly, in the event of an emergency.'

There will also be three webinars for businesses to understand the risks they face and actions they can take to prepare.

Businesses will be able to develop 'Business Community Response Plans' with other local businesses to identify ways they can support each other and their local communities during and following difficult times.

Businesses can register their interest in getting involved by emailing [email protected]