Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much (a) Coronavirus Job Retention Support Scheme funding and (b) business rates relief has been returned to the Exchequer by businesses since the first covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is currently looking at the feasibility of publishing information on how much Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme funding and business rates relief has been returned to the Exchequer by businesses since the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 and a decision will be forthcoming in due course.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2021 to Question 151725, on Business: Coronavirus, what estimate he has made of the amount of interest that businesses will accrue in deferred corporation tax payments.
Answered by Jesse Norman
I refer the Honourable Member to the response to UIN 151725 on 22 February 2021.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of interest accrued by businesses (a) in total, (b) in deferred VAT payments and (c) in deferred corporation tax payments as a result of covid-19 business support measures.
Answered by Jesse Norman
No interest has been accrued as a result of COVID-19 related tax payment deferral schemes.
As part of its measures to support businesses through COVID-19, the Government announced on 20 March 2020 that businesses may defer VAT payments, interest free, to help with their cash flow at a difficult time. No interest has been accrued by taxpayers in respect of VAT due between 20 March and 30 June 2020.
Further information can be found at www.gov.uk/hmrc/vat-deferral.
There was not an option to defer corporation tax payments, and therefore there was no interest accrued on such payments.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding has been allocated from the public purse to businesses in each region of the UK through the Future Fund; how much the average allocation is; and how many and what proportion of businesses in each region of the UK that applied to that Fund have been awarded a loan.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Data on the Future Fund is regularly published by the British Business Bank on their website, and their last release was on 17 December.
The table attached breaks down by region and nation: the number of firms that have received funding, the application success rate (notwithstanding in-flight applications) and the total amount awarded. The average allocation per business from the government is £1m.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of firms eligible for the 2020-21 business rates holiday; and how much has been spent from the public purse on that policy.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure is worth about £10 billion to businesses in this financial year. An estimated 350,000 retail, leisure and hospitality properties will pay no business rates in 2020-21.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of VAT registered businesses have taken advantage of the deferral of VAT payments due between 20 March and 30 June 2020; and what estimate his Department has made of the amount of VAT that has been deferred.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Approximately 600,000 businesses have deferred £34bn of VAT due to COVID-19. This equates to approximately 26% of the 2.3 million businesses registered for VAT.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total cost is to the public purse of the reduced rate of VAT for the (a) hospitality sector, (b) accommodation and (c) attractions to date.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Exchequer cost of the temporary reduced rate of VAT for hospitality, accommodation and attractions until 31 March 2021 was set out at Spending Review 2020. The estimated cost is £2,540m, as shown in Table 1.1: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2020-documents.
This costing has been certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The actual cost to date is not available owing to the lags in VAT reporting, and the final cost will depend on the level of demand and the extent of restrictions during the period of the relief.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number of employees that would have been eligible for the coronavirus job retention scheme that have been made redundant as a result of their employer being unable to meet the cost of Class 1 National Insurance contributions for those employees, since the removal of the grant to cover that cost on 1 August 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Of the employees who left the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) furlough scheme between April and July, 90% were still on their original payroll in August, suggesting they remained working for their original employer.
HMRC do not collect information on the reasons why employers choose to make employees redundant, and so it is not possible to estimate how many employees have been made redundant as a result of their employer being unable to meet the cost of Class 1 National Insurance contributions for those employees. For the average claim, employer National Insurance and pension contributions account for 5% of total employment costs.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether people employed by (a) business conference centres, (b) exhibition centres, (c) sports stadia, (d) live music venues, (e) theatres, (d) cinemas and (e) events companies are eligible for the Job Support Scheme; and when his Department plans to publish further detail on eligibility for that scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
To support individuals and businesses to deal with the challenges created by coronavirus during this winter, the Government is providing additional support to help employers retain their employees through the Job Support Scheme. The scheme will open on 1 November 2020 and run for 6 months, until April 2021. Employers will be able to make a claim online through GOV.UK from December 2020. They will be paid on a monthly basis.
Businesses which can continue to operate safely but are facing reduced demand will have access to JSS-Open, where the government grant will cover a portion of wages for non-worked hours.
Businesses are eligible to claim JSS-Closed if their business has been legally required to close as a direct result of COVID-19 restrictions set by one or more of the four governments of the UK. This includes premises restricted to delivery or collection only services from their premises.
Further guidance will be issued shortly to set out the complete list of conditions for eligibility for the Job Support Scheme.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to introduce a surcharge on purchases of property in the UK for overseas buyers.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is committed to introducing a new Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) surcharge on non-UK residents purchasing residential property in England and Northern Ireland. The surcharge will help control house price growth and therefore help those residents in the UK to get on to the housing ladder. The revenue raised by the surcharge will be used to tackle rough sleeping.
The Government will announce further updates on all tax measures at the Budget, which the Chancellor has announced will be held on 11 March.