Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will keep the Energy Business Discount Scheme under regular review to ensure it provides (a) support for businesses and (b) medium to long-term certainty on support so that businesses are able to plan ahead.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The new Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) will provide all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users across the UK with a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024, following the end of the current Energy Bill Relief Scheme. It will also provide businesses in sectors with particularly high levels of energy use and trade intensity with a higher level of support.
Through the current scheme, the Government provided an unprecedented package of support for non-domestic users through this winter. The Government has been clear that such levels of support, unprecedented in its nature and huge scale, were time-limited and intended as a bridge to allow businesses to adapt.
The new EBDS provides long term certainty for businesses and reflects how the scale of the challenge has changed since September last year. This will help those locked into contracts signed before recent substantial falls in the wholesale price manage their costs and provide others with reassurance against the risk of prices rising again.
In the longer-term, Energy Intensive Industries (EII) will continue to be supported by the Government’s EII exemption and compensation schemes. In April 2022 the Government extended the compensation scheme for a further 3 years and more than doubled its budget. On Thursday 23 February, the Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch announced further measures (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-action-to-supercharge-competitiveness-in-key-british-industries-and-grow-economy) to bring the energy costs of the UK’s energy intensive industries in line with those charged across the world’s major economies. This is crucial to helping these businesses remain internationally competitive and will enhance the UK’s attractiveness as a destination for international investment as well as remove barriers to move us further towards greener technology as part of a sustainable net zero future.
We will continue to closely monitor energy prices in the coming months.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with representatives of firms across the vehicle leasing sector on the merits of extending the two per cent benefit-in-kind taxation rates for battery electric cars beyond 2024-25.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
HMT recognises the important contribution the company car market makes to electric vehicle (EV) take-up in the UK.
The Government has announced CCT rates until April 2025 to give certainty to fleet owners, manufacturers and company car drivers, and aims to announce rates at least two years in advance of the rates coming into effect.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether eat in food business that are restricted to providing take away services due to covid-19 social distancing guidance are eligible for the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Eat Out to Help Out is designed to encourage people to return to eating out to support restaurants, pub, cafes and other dine-in establishments, which have been severely affected by COVID-19 due to closures and the impact of social distancing. In doing so, it will help support 1.8 million jobs disproportionately occupied by young, female, part-time workers, in the bottom half of incomes.
Hot takeaway food and drinks will benefit from the temporary VAT reduced rate for hospitality from 15 July 2020 to 12 January 2021.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to extend the Eat Out to Help Out scheme to include take-away outlets.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Eat Out to Help Out is designed to encourage people to return to eating out in order to support restaurants, pubs, cafes and other dine-in establishments, which have been severely affected by COVID-19 due to closures and the impact of social distancing. In doing so, it will help support 1.8 million jobs disproportionately occupied by young, female, part-time workers, in the bottom half of incomes.
Hot takeaway food and drinks will benefit from the temporary VAT reduced rate for hospitality from 15 July 2020 to 12 January 2021.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing further financial support to gyms and leisure facilities that remain unable to reopen to the public as a result of the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government has announced unprecedented support for business and workers to protect them against the current economic emergency. Gyms and leisure facilities continue to have access to a range of support measures including, but not limited to:
The Business Support website provides further information about how businesses can access the support that has been made available, who is eligible and how to apply - https://www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder.
On 11 May the Government published its COVID-19 recovery strategy which sets out our plan for moving to the next phase of our response. The strategy sets out a cautious roadmap for easing existing measures in a safe and measured way. On 23 June, the Prime Minister announced that several currently closed sectors will be allowed to reopen from 4 July, with appropriate mitigants in place, as set out in the COVID-secure guidance that departments have been working on. This includes:
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to establish a hardship fund for self-employed people facing financial hardship during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The new Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) helps those adversely affected by COVID-19. The scheme allows eligible individuals to claim a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of their average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering three months, and capped at £7,500 in total. Self-employed individuals, including members of partnerships, are eligible if they have submitted their Income Tax Self Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018-19, continued to trade, and have been adversely affected by COVID-19. To qualify, their self-employed trading profits must be less than £50,000, with more than half of their income from self-employment. Some 95 per cent of people who receive the majority of their income from self-employment could benefit from this scheme. The Chancellor will keep the scheme under review.
Individuals may have access to a range of grants and loans depending on their circumstances, and the self-employed can benefit from the Government’s relaxation of the earnings rules (known as the Minimum Income Floor) in Universal Credit. The SEISS supplements the significant support already announced for UK businesses, including the Bounce Back Loan Scheme for small businesses, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the deferral of tax payments. More information about the full range of business support measures is available at www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19.