Economic Update

Brendan O'Hara Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

My right hon. Friend knows this area better than most. She is absolutely right. This is an opportunity for us to demonstrate global leadership, and she can rest assured that we will do so, particularly on the finance track, which I am responsible for. I am working closely with Mark Carney, who is the Prime Minister’s envoy, and we are trying to put in place an ambitious set of goals that we can help deliver. She also talked about our leadership in particular areas, and those are things that we must double-down on. With offshore wind and carbon capture and storage, we can lead the world in developing those technologies.

[Brendan O'Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP) [V]]

Although I welcome the temporary reduction in VAT, it does not go nearly far enough to help the tourism and hospitality businesses in my already economically fragile Argyll and Bute constituency. Surely to ensure that these otherwise robust businesses are still there and are ready to go again next year, they need an extension of furlough to be able to retain their staff and to have access to grants, rather than having to rely on the business interruption loan scheme.

[Rishi Sunak]

I will not repeat my comments on an ever-extending furlough scheme. I do not think that that is the right thing to do. With regard to grants, we provided grants—£10,000 or £25,000—specifically to businesses in the retail, hospitality and tourism sector, and that is why those businesses did not necessarily have to use loans if they did not want to. They received that support early in this crisis, because we acknowledged the particular difficulty that they would face. The hon. Gentleman referred to the VAT cut, which was one of the significant asks—if not the significant ask—from industry, but there is also the “eat out to help out” discount that will drive tons of businesses and protect millions of jobs.