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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support local businesses in (a) Coventry and (b) the West Midlands during the covid-19 outbreak.

As part of grant support totalling £2.2 billion made available via local authorities in England, the Government is providing Coventry City Council with £4.38 m to support business that have to close between 5 November and 2 December as well as £7.43 m to support those businesses impacted by lockdown even though they are not required to stay shut.

This is on top of the unprecedented package of support for business in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19. Between March and September, over £1.15 billion has been paid out in grants to 104,145 business premises across the West Midlands.

In addition, as at 18 October, 84,773 Bounce Back Loans have been made in the West Midlands to the value of over £2.6 billion, as well as 3,770 Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans to the value of over £871 million, to help SMEs affected by Covid-19. Employees and self-employed people in Coventry and across the West Midlands are being supported via the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) respectively.

In November, Government announced plans to extend the CJRS until the end of March, confirmed an extension to the existing loan schemes to the end of January and an ability to top up Bounce Back Loans, as well as an increase to self-employed support and over £200 billion in VAT relief, business rate relief, tax deferrals, loans and support for individuals: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-extends-furlough-to-march-and-increases-self-employed-support.