Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason the conditions attached to covid-19 financial support to Celsa Steel announced on 2 June 2020 are not also attached to the public financial support the Bank of England is providing to businesses through the Covid Corporate Financing Facility.

The Covid Corporate Finance Facility (CCFF) is designed to support liquidity and corporate finance markets by purchasing short-term debt in the former of commercial paper from highly creditworthy firms that can demonstrate a material contribution to the UK economy. The scheme was introduced during a period of exceptional volatility in financial markets worldwide, with the purpose of purchasing highly creditworthy corporate debt so as to support corporate finance markets overall and ease the supply of credit to all firms, many of which are experiencing severe disruption to cashflows.

The climate crisis hasn’t gone away, but the focus of the Government’s economic response is on limiting the short-term health and economic effects of the pandemic. That is why we are allowing a wide spectrum of companies to make use of this scheme, so as to maximise its effectiveness in supporting corporate debt markets and easing cashflow issues for firms.

In the meantime, we remain committed to achieving the long-term changes in our economic system which are necessary to sustainably move towards net zero, which we are committed to achieving by 2050. To ensure that we can support this timely and orderly transition, we need our economic and financial system to be strong.