Covid-19: Small Businesses Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Baroness Verma
Main Page: Baroness Verma (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Verma's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Covid-19: Small Businesses
Baroness Verma Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Baroness makes an important point, but we have paid out more than £11 billion to more than 900,000 small businesses, and some small businesses that are ineligible for the SEISS grant extension may still be eligible for other elements of the scheme.
Baroness Verma (Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend look at councils that rent their properties out to small businesses, so that those businesses do not receive demands to pay their rent at this very difficult time? Leicester has been in a second lockdown since June, and small businesses are struggling. Will my noble friend also look at not re-adding VAT to PPE? I refer noble Lords to my interests as set out in the register.
Lord Callanan (Con)
My noble friend makes an important point, and I hope that councils, in particular, being part of the public sector, will be sympathetic to the plight of many small businesses at this time. I am sure that my noble friend will understand, however, that I cannot predict what the Chancellor might have to say, on VAT or any other matters, in his future Budgets.