Covid-19: Financial Support for High Street Retailers

Lord Addington Excerpts
Tuesday 27th October 2020

(3 years, 6 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Callanan Portrait Lord Callanan (Con)
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As the noble Lord will be aware, the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors have been helped considerably. We allocated £12.3 billion to local authorities in England to pay grants to businesses under the small business grants fund. This support will continue and we need to do all we can to help our high streets.

Lord Addington Portrait Lord Addington (LD)
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My Lords, will the Minister have a look at the fate of charity shops on the high street, which fill up a great deal of it? They provide a large part of the income of many charities and are having their services called on very heavily at the moment. Can we do something to help them particularly? They have lost a lot of money and we need their services.

Lord Callanan Portrait Lord Callanan (Con)
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The noble Lord makes a powerful point. We are providing an unprecedented package of support worth £750 million to allow charities and social enterprises to continue their vital work but, of course, we accept that we are not able to replace every pound that they have lost.