Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the minimum estimated cost of £522 million for one month of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of increasing the rate of Gift Aid from 20 percent to 25 per cent for two years which the charity sector estimates will cost £325 million.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
In response to these proposals to increase Gift Aid to 25 per cent I refer the Hon Member to the answer that I gave on 4 September to the Hon Member for Lewisham East (UIN 82365).Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the rate of Gift Aid to 25 percent for two years.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
In response to these proposals to increase Gift Aid to 25 per cent I refer the Hon Member to the answer that I gave on 4 September to the Hon Member for Lewisham East (UIN 82365).Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors survey which found that wholesalers have seen between a 40 per cent and 70 per cent reduction in sales volume for 2020 compared with 2019.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government has provided unprecedented levels of support for workers and businesses to protect, as much as possible, against the current economic emergency. Food and drink wholesalers are eligible for a number of these support schemes, with the most relevant likely to include:
Food and drink wholesalers have also benefited from the recent Eat Out to Help Out Scheme which provided over 100 million half price meals during August and helped to protect the livelihoods of the 1.8 million people working in the hospitality sector.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings of a Federation of Wholesale Distributors survey that without business rates relief in the next month 65 per cent of food and drink wholesalers surveyed will be either very likely, likely or somewhat likely to make redundancies.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government has provided unprecedented levels of support for workers and businesses to protect, as much as possible, against the current economic emergency. Food and drink wholesalers are eligible for a number of these support schemes, with the most relevant likely to include:
Food and drink wholesalers have also benefited from the recent Eat Out to Help Out Scheme which provided over 100 million half price meals during August and helped to protect the livelihoods of the 1.8 million people working in the hospitality sector.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of a recent Federation of Wholesale Distributor’s survey which found that (a) 90 per cent of food and drink wholesalers surveyed are highly likely to make redundancies by the end of the year because of a 50 per cent to 70 per cent reduction in sales, (b) millions of pounds worth of stock not sold due to a loss in customers is close-to or has passed its best before date and (c) almost 60 per cent of wholesalers, which supply to critical public sector infrastructure such as schools, care homes and hospitals are at risk of collapse by the end of the year without urgent financial support; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government has provided unprecedented levels of support for workers and businesses to protect, as much as possible, against the current economic emergency. Food and drink wholesalers are eligible for a number of these support schemes, with the most relevant likely to include:
Food and drink wholesalers have also benefited from the recent Eat Out to Help Out Scheme which provided over 100 million half price meals during August and helped to protect the livelihoods of the 1.8 million people working in the hospitality sector.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to update the Green Book to issue local authorities and other public sector bodies with guidance on how to manage land assets and commercial property investments.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HM Treasury will publish a revised Green Book at Spending Review 2020. This will reflect the findings of the Green Book review which was established at Budget 2020 to investigate whether the Green Book hindered the Government’s levelling up ambitions. It does not specifically address the management of land assets and commercial property investments. However, as part of a recent consultation, the Government set out that Local Authorities should not be investing in commercial property investments that serve no direct policy or treasury management purpose, and made proposals to amend the lending terms of the Public Works Loans Board (PWLB) to address the issue. The consultation closed on 31 July and the Government will be issuing a response in due course.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to extend business rates relief to food and drink wholesalers in response to a Federation of Wholesale Distributors survey which found that 58 per cent of respondents who supply public services such as schools, hospitals and care homes said that these contracts were at real risk of collapse without further Government support.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has provided enhanced support through business rates relief to eligible businesses occupying properties used for retail, hospitality and leisure. Business rates are devolved in Wales, and so are a matter for the Welsh Government.
A range of other measures to support all business, including wholesalers, have also been made available. On 8 July the Chancellor set out a package of measures to support jobs across the UK, including a Job Retention Bonus to help firms keep furloughed workers. On 24 September the Chancellor went further and announced the Job Support Scheme to provide further support for jobs.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the potential contribution to economic growth of decarbonising the maritime sector.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
HM Treasury has not made an assessment.
In 2019 the Department for Transport published the Clean Maritime Plan, which identified the potential for clean economic growth in the UK as a result of the transition to zero emission shipping.
Alongside the Plan, the Department published an assessment of the value of potential economic opportunities from low and zero emission shipping. The assessment projected future global uptake of new technologies and estimated the supply chain and export opportunities for the UK from the transition to zero emission shipping.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 3 July 2020 to Question 64077, what assessment he has made of the importance of the exchange rate margin as calculated from the European Central Bank (ECB) rate in providing clarity for people sending bank transfers abroad; and if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require that margin to be calculated from a live publicly available interbank rate rather than the ECB rate to ensure that transparency provisions will continue to work effectively in UK law after the end of the transition period.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Further to my response of 3 July 2020 to Question 64077, before the end of the Transition Period, the Government will bring forward secondary legislation under the EU Withdrawal Act 2018 to ensure that the provisions of the Cross Border Payments Regulation which require transparency of currency conversion fees and charges for credit transfers, continue to work effectively in UK law after the end of the Transition Period.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will extend the application of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund to the wholesale food and drink sector.
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 (RHLGF) is intended to help small businesses in this situation.
Local Authorities (LAs) can choose to make discretionary grants to businesses in other supply chains, like the wholesale food and drink sector, if they feel there is a particular local economic need. The Government has allocated up to an additional £617 million to LAs to enable them to give discretionary grants to businesses in this situation. LAs may choose to focus payments on those priority groups which are most relevant to their local areas or to businesses outside of these priority groups, so long as the business was trading on 11th March, and has not received any other cash grant funded by central Government.
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. The Business Support website provides further information about how businesses can access the support that has been made available, who is eligible, when the schemes open and how to apply - https://www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder.