Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support the UK’s transition to a net-zero economy.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government is committed to ending the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2050. As a step towards this, the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution was announced alongside the 2020 Autumn Spending Review.
The Ten Point Plan will mobilise £12 billion of Government investment for the green industries of the future and accelerate the UK’s path to Net Zero. This Government investment will spur over three times as much private sector investment by 2030.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what financial support his Department is providing to businesses required to close as a result of the covid-19 lockdown restrictions announced in January 2021.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Throughout this crisis, the government has sought to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods while also supporting businesses and public services across the UK. To do this, the government has put in place an economic package of support which will provide businesses and individuals with certainty over the coming months, even as measures to prevent further spread of the virus change. The government has spent over £280 billion this year to provide this support.
Businesses forced to close can claim grants of up to £3,000 per month, based on their rateable value, through the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed). They can also claim a one-off grant of up to £9,000, in addition to the monthly grant. Local authorities will also be given an additional £500 million discretionary funding to support their local businesses. This builds on the £1.1 billion discretionary funding (worth £20 per head of population) which local authorities in England have already received to support their local economies and help businesses impacted.
Businesses are also able to access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which was introduced to help employers whose operations have been affected by COVID-19 retain their employees and protect the UK economy. All businesses across the UK can access the scheme, which will run until the end of April 2021, with employees receiving 80% of their usual salary for hours not worked, up to £2,500 per month.
Businesses have also received billions in loans, tax deferrals, Business Rates relief, and general and sector-specific grants. Individuals and families have benefited from increased welfare payments, enhanced Statutory Sick Pay, a stay on repossession proceedings and mortgage holidays.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on promoting economic growth to support the recovery from covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Prime Minister and Chancellor chaired the first meeting of the new Build Back Better Business Council on 18 January. Here, the Chancellor laid out the three key pillars of the government’s plan to drive growth beyond the pandemic: investing in infrastructure, skills and innovation.
This is in addition to the unprecedented fiscal action set out by the Chancellor at January’s Economic Update, taken to support jobs and businesses through the crisis, in order to minimise short term and long-term damage to the economy.
The Government has provided over £280bn of fiscal stimulus through the UK’s comprehensive economic support plan. By doing this, we continue to provide comparable or greater support than all our international peers across almost all areas of economic policy.
This support provides a bridge for people and businesses until the economy reopens, giving them a chance to rebuild and grow again in the future.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) total value of grants provided through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to employees in (i) West Sussex and (ii) Arundel and South Downs constituency since the introduction of that scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC have published statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The statistics can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-coronavirus-covid-19-statistics.
For the period July to October 2020, the CJRS was closed to claims for employments not already furloughed and supported by the scheme except in certain exceptional circumstances. The total number of employments supported by the scheme up to that point was published in August and can be found on GOV.UK at the link provided below. The total number of employments at any time between March and June in West Sussex is 133,000. The equivalent figure for Arundel and South Downs constituency is 14,100. These figures are based on each employee’s residential address.
These statistics can be found here in full: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-august-2020
The value of claims split by Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency is not available. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme provides funds to PAYE schemes to support employers to pay a proportion of the wages of furloughed staff. The registered address for PAYE schemes can be in a different area to that where their employees live and work. In addition, for PAYE schemes claiming for between 1 and 99 employments there was no requirement to specify the amount claimed for each employment. As a consequence it is not possible to provide reliable figures for the monetary value of the support provided by geographical area.