Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to make wholesale food suppliers eligible for the Retail, Hospitality, and Leisure Grant.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government recognises that this is a very challenging time for businesses in a wide variety of sectors. Small businesses occupying properties for retail, hospitality or leisure purposes are likely to be particularly affected by Covid-19 due to their reliance on customer footfall, and the fact that they are less likely than larger businesses to have sufficient cash reserves to meet their high fixed property-related costs. The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund is intended to help small businesses in this situation.
Wholesale food suppliers may be eligible for a discretionary grant from their Local Authority. On Friday 1 May, the Government announced that it would be making up to £617m of additional funding available to Local Authorities to enable them to make payments of up to £25,000 to businesses which have been excluded from the existing grants schemes because of the way they interact with the business rates system. The additional funds are aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs, and we are particularly asking Local Authorities to prioritise businesses in shared spaces; regular market traders; small charity properties that would meet the criteria for Small Business Rates Relief; and bed and breakfasts that pay council tax rather than business rates. Local Authorities may choose to make payments to other businesses, including wholesale food suppliers, based on local economic need. However, the priority of all the grants schemes continues to be to help the smallest businesses, and small businesses which are facing significant property-related costs and operate in sectors which have been particularly hard hit by the steep decline in customer footfall.
Small businesses which are not eligible for business grants should still be able to benefit from other elements of the Government’s unprecedented package of support for business, including:
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the Government has paid in fines to the EU since 2010.
Answered by David Gauke
The United Kingdom has never incurred a financial penalty under Article 260 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (or under the former Article 228 (ex Article 171) of the Treaty Establishing the European Community).