Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support he plans to provide for hairdressers who have had to pay national insurance, pension contributions and other additional furlough costs on top of rent for several months without income and who face losing their businesses as a result of further lockdowns.

The Government recognises the extreme disruption the necessary actions to combat Covid-19 are having on businesses and workers in the beauty industry across the UK.

In response to the new restrictions, the Chancellor announced further support to businesses on top of the support already announced in the Winter Economy Plan and our previous economic responses. These support measures are carefully designed to complement each other to ensure we protect jobs and livelihoods.

This support includes a new one-off grant of up to £9,000 to support businesses in England which are legally required to close. This comes in addition to the existing monthly grants for closed businesses of up to £3,000 per month. Local authorities will also receive an additional £500m, to a total of £1.6bn, of discretionary funding to allow them to support their local businesses.

As measures to control the virus change, it is right that government support should also evolve. Because of this, we continue to take a flexible approach and keep all impacts and policies under review.