Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to encourage commercial lenders provide temporary commercial mortgage repayment holidays to businesses in the tourism and hospitality industries.

The Government has worked proactively with lenders to ensure that flexible support is provided to commercial landlords, including those in the tourism and hospitality sectors, through this difficult time. We announced on 29 May that lenders are committed to showing flexibility to commercial landlord customers that need it. The full statement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-publish-code-of-practice-with-commercial-sector-in-boost-to-high-street

A payment holiday is one of the options available for those that are facing financial difficulty and lenders are attempting to maximise the flexibility they can offer to borrowers at this time.

Ahead of the June payment day, all the main commercial lenders will be in contact with their major commercial landlord borrowers to identify concerns they have and provide support where appropriate.

It is right that where landlords receive support, they extend this to their tenants.