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Sunak announces top up grants for hospitality

The additional funding, which is on top of existing £3,000 grants, forms part of a £4.6bn package to help the sectors cope with the latest lockdowns announced yesterday.  

It is provided on a per-property basis and is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties. 

“Throughout the pandemic we’ve taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today we’re announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the spring,” said Rishi Sunak. 

“This will help businesses to get through the months ahead – and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen.” 

A further £594m is also being made available for local authorities and the devolved administrations to support other businesses not eligible for the grants, that might be affected by the restrictions.  

Welcoming the additional support package, UK Hospitality said: “This is obviously a very positive step to keep businesses afloat in the immediate term and, for that reason, must be welcomed.

“The Chancellor has rightly recognised the costs imposed on hospitality businesses by enforced closures and the need for additional support. It is also encouraging that the discretionary grants address the suffering in the supply chains upon which our sector is reliant,” said CEO Kate Nicholls.

However, she added, while the announcement was “most welcome, make no mistake that this is only a sticking plaster for immediate ills – it is not enough to even cover the costs of many businesses and certainly will not underpin longer-term business viability for our sector”.

To address the “inevitable and existential challenges that hospitality faces, we need confirmation of extensions to the business rates holiday and of the 5% VAT rate”, she reiterated.

“On its own, today’s support is not enough. Businesses need a longer-term economic plan and it would befit the crisis that we face if the Chancellor brought forward his Budget to make the announcements necessary to reassure businesses and allow them to plan their survival. Commercial certainty cannot come soon enough and only the Chancellor can deliver it,” she said.

The one-off top-ups will be granted to closed businesses as follows: £4k for businesses with a rateable value of £15k or under; £6k for businesses with a rateable value between £15k and £51k; and £9k for businesses with a rateable value of over £51k. 

The furlough scheme, which pays people 80% of their wages, is already set to go on until the end of April.