Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the manufacturing industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Throughout the Covid-19 outbreak, we have engaged closely with manufacturing industry through sector roundtables and by talking directly to businesses. This has helped shape the Government’s unprecedented package of support which has included loan schemes, grant funding, tax deferrals and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, all of which is designed to be accessible to businesses in most sectors including manufacturing.
We are also investing £147 million through a Manufacturing Made Smarter Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund programme and have invested £730 million in the seven High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres, supporting manufacturers in bringing new technologies to market.
We recently announced £8 million in new Government funding to help manufacturing SMEs increase productivity, competitiveness and drive up efficiency by adopting industrial digital technology, building on the success of our Made Smarter North West Pilot.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to assist small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has introduced an unprecedented and comprehensive package of business support measures to help as many individuals and businesses as possible during this difficult period.
As part of the Local Restrictions Support Grant (closed) (LRSG), business premises that are required by law to close during the current period of national restrictions since 5th January can access grants of up to £4,500 per 6 weeks of closure.
In addition to the LRSG, each closed business will be eligible for a one-off payment of up to £9,000 to help them through Spring.
Local Authorities in England have been allocated a further £500m in discretionary funding to support businesses that are significantly impacted by the restrictions even though not required to close. This is in addition to £1.1bn already allocated in November 2020. Local Authorities have discretion to use this funding to support businesses in the way they see fit.
Between March and September 2020, small businesses were supported through the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF), the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) and the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF). As of 30th September, more than £11.6 billion has been dispersed to more than a million business premises across the three schemes. These schemes are now closed.
Devolved Administrations have received funding according to the Barnett formula to develop and administer grant schemes to support small businesses.
In addition to grant support, the Government has announced further measures which build on the existing business support package, including extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of April 2021, extension of the Coronavirus Loan Guarantee schemes until 31 March 2021, and introduction of Pay As You Grow measures, meaning businesses now have the option to repay their Bounce Back Loans over a period of up to ten years.
As off 24 January 2021, BBLS has seen 1,471,001 loans approved worth £44.74 billion, and CBILS has seen 87,529 loans approved worth £20.84 billion.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the lockdown restrictions in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic on the small business sector over the Christmas period.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is working closely with Local Authorities in England to support the implementation of grants to support businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic and monitor the distribution of grant funds.
Where local authorities are in Tier 3 (Very High) funding will continue to be provided to support those businesses required to close, through the Local Restriction Support Grant (Closed), a grant up to £1,500 every 14 days.
Alongside those businesses who have been mandated to close, funding will also be provided to support those business who have had their trade adversely affected by restrictions. The Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) provides further discretionary funding to Local Authorities whilst in Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions so they can support businesses that are impacted but not required to close.
The Additional Restrictions Grant was provided to Local Authorities as a one-off lump sum discretionary scheme, providing support to businesses severely impacted by restrictions as well as wider business support.
The Christmas support payment for ‘wet-led’ pubs is a one-off grant payment of £1,000 for wet-led pubs in Tier 2 and 3 who have had their trade effected due to localised restrictions during the Christmas period.
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Sector) will provide funding of grants of up to £1,500 every 14 days for businesses mandated to close on a sector basis, such as nightclubs.
This is in conjunction with the extension of the application deadline to the 31 January 2021 for three Coronavirus business interruption loan schemes – the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme.
Eligible businesses will be able to ‘top up’ existing Bounce Back Loans should they need additional finance.