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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what additional steps his Department is taking to support high street retail (a) during and (b) after the end of the covid-19 outbreak.

Retailers that are required by law to close during the current period of national restrictions can access grants of up to £3,000 per month (Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed).  In addition, each closed business will be eligible for a one-off payment of up to £9,000 to help them through Spring. This is the Closed Business Lockdown Payment.

Local authorities have been allocated a further £500m in discretionary funding via the Additional Restrictions Grant to support those businesses that are significantly impacted by the restrictions even though they may not be required to close.  This is in addition to £1.1bn already allocated in November 2020.  Local authorities have discretion to use this funding to support businesses in the way they see fit.  For example, this could include supporting businesses which supply the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors.

We have extended the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to the end of April 2021.

We have extended the application deadline for the existing loan schemes to 31 March 2021, ensuring there is further support in place for firms who need it during this ongoing period of difficulty. The Government has already announced that more support will be available beyond March, through a successor loan scheme, and more details of the scheme will be announced in due course.

We will continue to work with the retail sector to ensure restrictions can be lifted once the health data allows.