Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what additional support, further to the Additional Restrictions Grant Scheme, he will make available to local authorities for (a) pubs and (b) hospitality businesses who are able to trade but have been adversely affected by the tier 2 local covid alert level restrictions.

The Government recognises that in areas which are subject to restrictions on socialising, in particular a ban on indoor household mixing, many businesses which are able to remain open may nonetheless experience a reduction in demand. The hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors are particularly vulnerable to these kinds of restrictions because a significant portion of their revenue comes from households socialising together.

This is why the Government has introduced the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) (LRSG (Open)). This scheme provides local authorities in areas which are subject to a ban on indoor household mixing with funding to make grants of up to £2,100 per month to accommodation, hospitality (including pubs) and leisure businesses which are able to remain open but are nonetheless significantly affected by these restrictions. Local authorities which were subject to these kinds of restrictions between 1 August and 5 November have also received additional funding to enable them to make backdated grants from the LRSG (Open) scheme.

Local authorities have the discretion to provide further support to pubs and hospitality businesses, including supply chain businesses, through the Additional Restrictions Grant, which has provided all English local authorities with additional funding worth £20 per head of population, a total of £1.1 billion across England.