Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support his Department is providing to retail supply chain businesses that are ineligible for both the Small Business Grant and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Scheme.

The Government recognises that the past few months have been very challenging for businesses in a wide variety of sectors. Small businesses occupying properties for retail, hospitality or leisure purposes were likely to have been particularly affected by COVID-19 due to their reliance on customer footfall, and the fact that they were less likely than larger businesses to have sufficient cash reserves to meet their high fixed property-related costs. The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund was intended to help small businesses in this situation.

Local Authorities could choose to make discretionary grants to businesses in other sectors if they feel there is a particular local economic need. However, the priority of all the grants schemes was to help the smallest businesses, and small businesses which were facing significant property-related costs and operated in sectors which were particularly hard hit by the steep decline in customer footfall.

Businesses which did not receive a grant from any of the business grant schemes should have been able to benefit from other policies in the Government’s unprecedented package of economic support during this difficult time. Businesses in the retail supply chain should also be able to benefit from the additional support measures which the Government announced on 24 September as part of the Winter Economy Plan. These new measures include:

• The new Jobs Support Scheme, which for six months from 1 November will see the Government contribute towards the wages of employees across the UK who are working fewer than normal hours due to decreased demand related to COVID-19;
• The SEISS Grant Extension, which provides additional taxable grant funding to self-employed individuals who are currently eligible for the SEISS and are actively continuing to trade, but are facing reduced demand due to COVID-19;
• Extending the temporary VAT cut for hospitality and tourism businesses to March 2021;
• Extending the deadline for new applications to four of the COVID-19 loan schemes to 30 November; and
• Help for businesses in repaying loans from Government-backed schemes through the Pay as you Grow scheme and allowing lenders to extend the terms of CBILS loans to up to 10 years.