David Evennett

The Government has brought forward a substantial package of financial support for the hospitality sector since the start of the year. We keep these measures under close review and as a result my Rt hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer set out in the Budget a £65 billion three-point plan to provide support for jobs and businesses (including the hospitality sector), with extensions to furlough, self-employed support, business grants, loans and VAT cuts – bringing total fiscal support to over £407 billion.

My Rt hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on the 5^th January a further package of support for businesses that are required to close, or which are severely affected by the restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives.

Business that are mandated to close may be eligible for grants of up to £4,500 for every six weeks of closure through the Local Restrictions Support Grant Addendum: 5 January Onward. The Closed Business Lockdown Payment is a one-off payment of up to £9,000 to support business during the difficult Spring period.

A further £500 million of discretionary funding has been made available via the Additional Restrictions Grant, this may be used to support business who have not been mandated to close but had their trade severely affected by restrictions.

We have extended the application deadline for the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme until 31 March 2021. Bounce Back Loan borrowers will also be able to top-up their loan, extend their loan term to ten years and take advantage of repayment holidays

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will remain open until the end of April 2021, with employees receiving 80% of their current salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500.

We are providing hospitality sector in Tiers 2 and 3 with a wide package of support to help them through the current crisis. This includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, government-backed loans, Local Restrictions Support Grants and additional funding provided to Local Authorities to support businesses. On 1 December, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced an additional £1,000 Christmas grant for ‘wet-led pubs’ in tiers 2 and 3.

The ONS data below shows the overall number of public houses and bars in Bexleyheath and Crayford, Bexley Borough, London and England in each year from 2011 to 2020. Numbers of business closures specifically (VAT de-registrations) are not available at this level of industrial and geographical detail.

Number of Public House and Bar Local Units

Source: ONS Business Counts. *Series break due to London geographical boundary change in 2016

We regularly engage with the industry to understand the challenges that pubs are facing. We have provided a range of business support which pubs have been able to take advantage of, including a one-year business rates holiday, business support grants and government-backed loans. Recently, further support has been announced such as the Job Support Scheme and its extension and the Local Restrictions Support Grant scheme.

As of 31 May, 699,354 loans have been approved under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), with a total value of £21.29 billion.

The Scheme has received 873,192 applications. The applications figure includes: approved applications; applications that are still to be processed; applications that have been declined; and applications that may turn out not to be eligible or cases where customers will decide not to proceed.

As of 31 May, 699,354 loans have been approved under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), with a total value of £21.29 billion.

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) is part of a comprehensive package of support for SMEs. The Government held discussions with the banking industry prior to the launch of CBILS. The Business Secretary continues to hold a regular dialogue with the largest CBILS lenders to monitor its implementation.

The Government has responded to feedback from stakeholders on CBILS, which includes the time taken by lenders to process applications, by:

• Removing the ability for lenders to ask for personal guarantees for loans under £250,000, and reducing the personal guarantee for loans over £250,000 to 20% of the outstanding balance after recoveries;
• Introducing technical changes to ensure that applications will be processed faster;
• Removing the forward-looking viability test; and
• Removing the per lender portfolio cap.

The Government will continue to monitor the scheme and introduce amendments as appropriate.

The Government has made £12.3 billion available to businesses under the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund. Local authorities are contacting businesses directly to deliver these grants.

As of 3 May, 696,970 business premises in England have received grants across the two schemes, totalling £8.595 billion, with more money delivered to businesses every day. In the London Borough of Bexley, grant payments have been made to 2,464 business premises, with a total number of 79,886 business premises benefiting from the two schemes in London. We do not hold information at constituency level, however, a full breakdown of grant funding allocated to and distributed by each local authority is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.

This breakdown is updated on a weekly basis.

Through the Government’s Growth Deals for 2015 to 2021, we have awarded the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) £435.28 million to support large-scale local growth programmes across London.

LEAP brings entrepreneurs, businesses, the Mayoralty, and London Councils together to strategically support job creation in the capital. LEAP’s capital investment programme for further education providers in London will ensure facilities are available to support first-class training that meets employers’ needs.

The table below provides ONS data on new business registrations for VAT and/or PAYE (ONS Business Demography 2018 – Enterprise births, deaths and survivals).

To Note: Data is not available for periods earlier than 2013 or later than 2018.

The Government is extremely well prepared for these types of outbreaks; we are taking all necessary precautions to protect the public, including engaging with industry and the business community to discuss their preparedness planning. We have been receiving regular information from our stakeholders and continue to work together to keep on top of the situation.

The Government is closely monitoring developments in relation to potential economic impacts on the UK economy, as well as individual businesses and supply chains. For individual businesses, the first port of call for advice and support should still be gov.uk and the Department is scaling up its Business Support Helpline so businesses of all sizes can pick up the phone for guidance.

The Department is also working with Her Majesty’s Treasury to actively look at ways to support businesses, especially small-and medium-sized businesses, through this temporary period of disruption.

We want to make sure that the UK is the best place in the world to work and grow a business. That’s why we are backing businesses right across the country, with 381,000 new businesses starting last year, and the government-owned British Business Bank currently supports more than £7bn to over 91,000 smaller businesses.

The British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans programme provides loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their own businesses. Since 2012 the programme has delivered more than 69,000 Start-Up Loans, providing more than £558m of funding, in every part of the United Kingdom. Since 2012:

• The constituency of Bexleyheath and Crayford received 72 loans worth over £661,000;
• In London 15,642 loans were issued worth over £126m.

In addition to its lending and investment activity, the British Business Bank’s online Finance Hub helps business owners to find the right finance options for their needs.

Government has also taken a number of steps in recent years to support the growth of small businesses across the UK, including cutting corporation tax to 19 per cent and increasing the employment allowance from £2,000 to £3,000 to benefit around 1m businesses. Reforms and reliefs to business rates, since Budget 2016, are worth £13 billion over the next five years.

All businesses in England including your constituency and London, can access support through our Gov.uk website, the Business Support Helpline (0300 456 3565) and through their Local Growth Hubs.

As well as an online support, London has recently opened five main physical sites (that will be staffed) in Vauxhall, Woolwich, Tottenham, Hammersmith and Corydon, and 4 satellite sites (to ensure a wide coverage of the sub regions) in Harrow, Wood Green, Brixton and Ilford to deliver surgeries and workshops. These are led and governed by London’s Local Enterprise Partnership, LEAP. Growth Hubs provide a free, impartial, ‘single point of contact’ to help businesses in these areas identify and access the right support for them at the right time no matter their size or sector. In 2018-2019 the London Growth Hub supported 4,651 businesses.

We are committed to ensuring all small businesses have access to the advice and support they need to succeed to start, grow, and scale up their businesses.

The Government-backed British Business Bank is there to make finance markets work better for small businesses at all stages of their development. The Bank’s programmes are currently supporting over £6.6bn of finance to over 89,000 smaller businesses (in London £119m of finance to over 15,000 smaller businesses). The British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans programme provides loans to entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their own businesses. Since 2012, the Programme has delivered almost 66,500 loans, worth over £527m to small businesses.

There are 38 Growth Hubs (one in each Local Enterprise Partnership area) providing a free and impartial, local single point of contact to all businesses, no matter their size or sector, to access advice and support from across the public and private sector. In 2018-2019 Growth Hubs supported over 121,500 businesses (over 4,600 in London).

Through three rounds of competitive Growth Deals, Government has invested over £9bn of funding, including £435.3m to London, to empower local areas to reach their potential, boosting national productivity and growth.

All businesses can access core services, information and guidance on starting up and running a business, as well as their statutory rights and obligations, on our GOV.UK websites, and our Business Support Helpline forms a key part of the government’s offer to SMEs in England, providing trusted and joined-up information and sign-posting businesses to relevant sources of support. In 2018, it helped 31,500 businesses, of which 65% were entrepreneurs and start-ups.

We will continue to work to make small business owners more aware of the wide range of advice and support available to them.

The Department is maintaining efforts to ensure businesses are ready to leave the EU on 31 October. We engage widely with businesses of all sizes, and as part of the refreshed communications campaign and engagement strategy which the Government has launched, BEIS is pursuing a range of actions to promote awareness and understanding of what businesses, including SMEs, need to do to get ready.

These include the publication of an SME Brexit guidance leaflet and the launch of our Get Ready Roadshows. These specifically target SMEs with information and advice but also ensure intermediaries, such as banks and accountants, have the information needed to support businesses.

Our plans also include advertising aimed at specific sectors using social and digital channels, as well as advertising in publications such as Auto Express setting out the steps businesses should take to get ready for Brexit.

We recently unveiled a £10 million Business Readiness Fund for business organisations and trade associations to support businesses, including SMEs, prepare for EU exit. These funds will support businesses across the UK in understanding the steps they should take to be ready for 31 October.

Through the British Business Bank (BBB) we are putting in place measures to support SMEs through cashflow challenges. Following a Business Finance Roundtable on 5 September, a new Business Finance Council has been established to support SMEs prepare for EU exit and help them secure working capital should they face difficulties in an economic downturn.

We are working with the tourism and hospitality sector to ensure it remains globally competitive.

Whether the UK leaves with a deal or not, the UK and the EU have proposed reciprocal visa-free travel arrangements to enable UK and EU citizens to continue to travel freely for tourism in the future. The Government has also confirmed that EU nationals can continue to travel on a national ID card until December 2020 and use e-gates when travelling on a passport. The Home Office has also announced this week that the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and South Korea have been added to the list of countries whose nationals are eligible to use ePassport gates to enter the UK.

For those visitors who need a visa, the UK Visas and Immigration service (UKVI) aims to deliver a world-class customer experience that is competitive, flexible and accessible. UKVI have a number of projects underway that will deliver significant customer service improvements this year.

The proposed tourism sector deal, which is in formal negotiations, has a strong focus on competitiveness through boosting connectivity (both transport connections and digital connectivity) and working with destinations to build quality tourism products that meet visitors needs and expectations. A key focus is also making the sector more attractive to UK nationals through investment in skills, career development and retention policies.

VisitBritain are also working hard to promote the UK as a destination, using targeted marketing in Europe, increasing work with partnerships such as EasyJet and increasing press engagement in the tourism market, featuring activities for visitors to do in the UK this summer.

We want all young people to be healthy and active. That is why Sport England is investing over £194 million (between 2016-21) into projects focusing on improving children’s engagement in and enjoyment of physical activity. This includes £40m for projects which support families with children to get active together, and continued investment into satellite clubs.

We are also working with the Departments for Education and Health and Social Care on a new cross-government action plan, to get kids active in and out of school, which will be published in spring.

We published the Review of Gambling Machines and Social Responsibility Measures in May. This set out measures to strengthen protections around gaming machines, including cutting the maximum stake on B2 machine from £100 to £2, online gambling, and gambling advertising. It also set out action on treatment and support for those who experience harm, including initiatives to improve the evidence on treatment needs and effectiveness, expand access to existing services and strengthen the voluntary system for funding support. Government has also encouraged industry to increase its funding for third sector initiatives to support people with a gambling addiction.

GambleAware, an independent charity, commissions treatment services, including the National Gambling Helpline and counselling services, specialist treatment delivered by the NHS National Problem Gambling Clinic and the Gordon Moody Association. GambleAware aims to triple access to its treatment services across the country and recently announced the establishment of a further specialist NHS clinic and Problem Gambling Support team in Leeds.

As demonstrated by the report Gambling Behaviour in Great Britain 2016, which is based on the combined Health Surveys, there is an association between mental health and problem or risky gambling behaviour. Some problem gamblers will therefore access support through services for other addictions and mental health conditions. The National Institute for Care and Health Excellence (NICE) has been commissioned to explore developing a guideline on non-chemical addictions, including gambling, which would give support to clinicians seeking to support problem gamblers.

The Department has not conducted a specific analysis of the economic impact of poor broadband connectivity in the UK, England, London, or the London Borough of Bexley.

We have published a further independent evaluation of the Department’s superfast programme, which has provided superfast broadband access to over 4.85 million homes and businesses across the UK, which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-economic-impact-and-public-value-of-the-superfast-broadband-programme.

The Department has analysed the impacts of superfast broadband, including the economic impact. Our 2013 UK Broadband Impact Study and an evaluation in 2015 of the UK's National Broadband Scheme are both available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-broadband-impact-study--2 and www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-national-broadband-scheme-an-independent-evaluation.

As the Government's response to the Consultation on proposals for changes to Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures set out, the reduction in maximum stake on B2 machines will be delivered through secondary legislation in due course. We are currently preparing draft regulations needed to make the change, alongside engaging with the gambling industry to ensure that there is an appropriate lead-in period to allow for technological changes to be made.

The Government’s response to the Consultation on proposed changes to gaming machines and social responsibility measures was published on 17th May. Since then, Ministers and officials have met with and received correspondence from a range of stakeholders, including parliamentarians, representatives of the gambling industry, trade associations, and campaign group members.

The Great Britain Tourism Survey and the Great Britain Day Visits Survey show that domestic spend for Great Britain over the previous 5 years has been as follows:

Sources:

Great Britain Tourism Survey:2017 Overview; GB All Trip Purposes

Great Britain Day Visits Survey: 2017 Regional and Demographic Breakdown

VisitBritain and VisitEngland are responsible for promoting the UK as a tourist destination, through a range of different initiatives and campaigns. London features in many of VisitBritain’s campaign, such as the current global marketing campaign ‘I Travel For’ to increase inbound tourism to Great Britain.

VisitBritain also work with travel and tourism partners such as Sony Pictures and Studio Canal, to promote filming locations across London, and Barclays Premier League to convert football fans to visitors, promoting London stadia and their surrounding neighbourhoods. Additionally, VisitBritain work closely with London and Partners to ensure complementary marketing campaigns, including investing £500,000 in London & Partners’ Autumn Season campaign. They are also supporting London & Partners’ culture and dispersal messaging – helping attract visitors to London’s vibrant outer neighbourhoods and supporting the Mayor’s priority of delivering for all Londoners.

On 31 October 2017 the government published proposals for changes on gaming machines and social responsibility measures. We were clear that we see a case for action on fixed-odds betting terminals, and the consultation outlined a range of options including cutting the maximum stake from £100 to between £50 and £2. The consultation closed on 23 January. On 19 March the Gambling Commission published its advice and the Government will consider this alongside the responses received by the consultation and will publish its response in due course.

VisitBritain and VisitEngland do not hold a breakdown of spending at local level, however London features in many of VisitBritain’s campaign, such as the current global marketing campaign ‘I Travel For’ to increase inbound tourism to Great Britain.

VisitBritain also work with travel and tourism partners such as Sony Pictures and Studio Canal, to promote filming locations across London, and Barclays Premier League to convert football fans to visitors, promoting London stadia and their surrounding neighbourhoods. VisitBritain also work closely with London and Partners to ensure complementary marketing campaigns, including investing £500,000 in London & Partners’ Autumn Season campaign.

In addition to this, London-based Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) collaborate with other DMOs across the country as part of several VisitEngland Discover England Fund projects.

In 2016 Tourism accounted for £66bn GVA, which was 3.8%of the total UK GVA.

Domestic Trip expenditure in England over the past five years are as follows (£millions):

In November 2015, the Government announced the £40 million Discover England Fund (DEF), an unprecedented opportunity for investment in improving English tourism product.

We have been working with VisitEngland to encourage more domestic visitors to explore the country and discover all there is to see and experience on their doorstep this spring. For example, the annual celebration of English tourism, English Tourism Week has just concluded. Further details can be found here: https://www.visitbritain.org/english-tourism-week.

VisitEngland have various projects aimed at promoting domestic tourism and building our domestic product, such a rail ‘final mile’ campaign and developing food hubs across the country. VisitEngland also worked with VisitScotland and Visit Wales to launch a major domestic campaign for summer 2017, focussed on encouraging young people to holiday at home.

Government’s Sporting Future strategy, published in December 2015, set out out how important it is for all children to have a good experience of sport and physical activity while they are young.

Sport England supports children and young people in England by ensuring there is a good sports and activity offer before and after the school day. Sport England has committed up to £194 million of investment into children and young people over the next four years, which includes the Families Fund: up to £40 million invested in projects that offer new opportunities for families with children to be active together. Sport England will also provide specialist training to at least two teachers in every secondary school in England by 2020, and will invest £28m into Satellite Clubs between 2017-2021. Sport England is also investing £3m through the Potentials Fund, which will look at ways to get young people involved in social action and volunteering using sport and physical activity.

Government continues to invest in the School Games (around £17.5m per year) so that all children and young people have the best opportunities to engage in competitive sport. DCMS also works closely with the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care on cross-government issues such as school sport and the Childhood Obesity Plan.

According to data from Thinkbroadband (www.thinkbroadband.com) the current superfast broadband coverage (speeds of more than 24Mbps) in the Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency is 96% and in the London Borough of Bexley it is 96.6%. The Government expects superfast broadband coverage within London to be provided by the private sector and there is therefore no government-funded superfast project. Providers including BT Openreach, Virgin Media and Hyperoptic all have current or planned network coverage within Bexley.

During 2017 DCMS worked with a number of London Boroughs, including Bexley, to ensure proportionate mechanisms are in place to enable access to the highways by broadband providers for network deployment.

For any premises not covered by superfast broadband, as confirmed in our announcement in December 2017, we are pushing ahead with our plans for a Universal Service Obligation (USO) so that by 2020 everyone across the UK will have a clear, enforceable right to request 10 Megabit per second broadband.

In September we launched Wave 1 of the Local Full Fibre Network programme in 6 locations across the UK, and used expressions of interest gathered in this period to shape a Challenge Fund Wave 2, which was launched on 22nd November 2017.

The Challenge Fund was available in open competition for local bodies from across all regions to bid into on a competitive basis to fund full fibre connections and upgrades to public sector assets and amenities. Bidding for the Challenge Fund closed on 26th January 2018 and we are currently assessing applications with successful bids being announced in March 2018.