Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to support the hospitality sector during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government understands that this is a very challenging time for the UK’s hospitality sector and night-time businesses, and recognises that the hospitality sector has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. Throughout the crisis the Government’s priority has been to protect lives and livelihoods. The Government is delivering support to this sector and these businesses through:

• The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which has supported 1.4 million jobs across the hospitality sector and has been extended until the end of April 2021.
• Cash grants of up to £3,000 for businesses forced to close. In addition, the Government has announced one-off top up grants worth £4 billion for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property. The Government expect over 600,000 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure business premises in England to benefit from these grants. Previously, the Small Business Grant Fund; Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund; and the Local Authority Discretionary Grant Fund all provided around a million business properties with over £11.6 billion worth of grants.
• Local Authorities (in England) have been given an additional £500 million of discretionary funding to support their local businesses. This builds on the £1.1 billion discretionary funding which local authorities in England have already received to support their local economies and help businesses impacted.
• An additional £1,000 Christmas grant for ‘wet-led pubs’ who missed out on business during the busy Christmas period.
• A VAT deferral ‘New Payment Scheme’ whereby businesses which deferred their VAT due between March and June until March 2021 will have the option of making 11 payments spread throughout the year rather than one lump sum.
• Access to affordable, Government-backed finance through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBLS) for larger firms, along with the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBL) for small and micro enterprises.
• A reduced rate of VAT (5 per cent) to goods and services supplied by the tourism and hospitality sectors.
• A 12-month business rates holiday for all eligible retail, leisure and hospitality businesses in England, saving around 350,000 ratepayers a combined £10 billion.

The Government is continuing to collect evidence on the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry and work with businesses and representative groups to ensure that support provided is right for this industry and the economy as a whole.