Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to support hospitality sector businesses in light of recent trends of rising costs for business owners.

To support all businesses across the UK economy throughout the Covid-19 pandemic we have provided businesses with an unprecedented support package of £400 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme. This includes a total of over £26 billion in business grants. The Government announced on 21 December that additional support will be available for businesses in recognition of the impact that the spread of the Omicron variant had on hospitality during one of their busiest months. The Government is providing one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises for businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England plus more than £100 million discretionary funding will be made available for Local Authorities to support other businesses – a lifeline for many small hospitality businesses.

In July 2021, the Department launched the first-ever hospitality strategy to support the reopening, recovery and resilience of England’s pubs, restaurants, cafes and nightclubs. We have also launched the Hospitality Sector Council to oversee the delivery of the strategy.

I and officials in the Department continues to speak regularly with the hospitality sector to understand their needs and issues, includes trading conditions and represent these across Government.