Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to open a second tranche of applications for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has made an unprecedented package of support available to businesses that are required to close or which have been severely affected by the restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives.
Following on from closure of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund, other grant support measures have been in place to reflect the changing landscape of local and national Covid-19 restrictions. This includes funding for businesses required to close and discretionary funding for Local Authorities to support other businesses that whilst able to remain open may be severely impacted.
In January, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a further package of business grant support. Business premises that are required by law to close – including those businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors – are able to access grants of up to £4,500 per 6-week period of closure and a further one-off Closed Business Lockdown Payment of up to £9,000.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether self-catering holiday lets are eligible for support through the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) Scheme covering the period of national restrictions in November 2020 where an existing booking was being honoured starting before 31 October 2020 when the covid-19 lockdown restrictions were announced and continued beyond 5 November 2020 in line with the Coronavirus Update statement on 2 November 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) is available to all businesses in England that have been required to close due to local or national COVID-19 restrictions.
There are three key considerations when a Local Authority determines the eligibility of a business for a grant under the LRSG (Closed):
Where an organisation meets all of these criteria, it is considered eligible to receive a grant through the mandatory LRSG (Closed) scheme.
Local authorities are responsible for making decisions on whether a business qualifies for a grant. In doing so they must take into account guidance released by government Statutory Instruments (including exceptions).
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many approved installers for the Green Homes Grant operate within Kent.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Green Homes Grant Scheme launched for applications on 30 September and as announced on 18 November will run until 31 March 2022. Our installer data is at Local Authority rather than regional level. As of 23 November, the number of TrustMark registered installer businesses available in each of the Local Authorities within Kent are as follows:
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will issue guidance to encourage the safe practice of reflexology during periods of national covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Paul Scully
Businesses should carry out COVID-19 risk assessments and consult the current guidance. If reflexology businesses interpret that they can remain open during the national COVID-19 restrictions, they should refer to the Close Contact Services guidance.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what financial support is available through the Expanded Retail Discount scheme for breweries which do not have a shop or taproom included within or attached to their premises.
Answered by Paul Scully
Businesses are eligible for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund and the business rate holiday scheme if they are based in England with a property that is wholly or mainly being used for the purposes of retail, hospitality and/or leisure.
The Government has announced an additional discretionary fund to support small businesses that fall outside the scope of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund and the Small Business Grants Fund, which have under 50 employees and have seen a significant drop of income due to Coronavirus restriction measures.
The Government is also providing an unprecedented package of wider support available to breweries. This includes business interruption loan schemes, job retention and self-employed income support schemes, as well as a bounce back loan scheme. The full details of all these measures have been published at:
https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-support/.