21 December 2021
Additional support will be available for businesses who have been impacted by the Omicron variant, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced today (21 December).
- Businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premise, plus more than £100 million in discretionary funding will be made available for local authorities to support other businesses
- The government will also cover the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for Covid-related absences for small and medium-sized employers across the UK
- £30 million further funding will be made available through the Culture Recovery Fund, enabling more cultural organisations in England to apply for support during the winter
Recognising that the rise of the Omicron variant means some businesses are likely to struggle over the coming weeks, the government is providing one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premise for businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England.
At what is often their most profitable time of year, many pubs and restaurants have seen cancellations and reduced footfall as people have responded to the rise in cases ahead of Christmas, with Hospitality UK reporting that many businesses have lost 40-60% of their December trade, often their most profitable month.
Around 200,000 businesses will be eligible for business grants which will be administered by local authorities and will be available in the coming weeks.
Andrew Goodacre Bira CEO commented, "Independent retail, and retail in general, will feel very disappointed with this announcement. Retail seems to be the forgotten part of the high street. Shops do not have cancelled bookings to shout about. However, we do have lower footfall, cancelled trips to the shops and therefore cancelled purchases at a critical time of year – just as much damage but just not as ‘visible’. The Chancellor claims to respond proportionately but he has done nothing for independent retail, pointing us to existing support schemes such as rate reductions. They do exist, but they exist to help businesses recover from previous damaging lockdowns, not to deal with a brand new crisis such as Omicron. This is why new support for struggling retailers is required.
The high street is a mixture of independent businesses from hospitality, leisure and retail. If one of these fails, the high street is a worse place to be with other businesses suffering.it will cost the government a lot more to put right in the future compared to helping save livelihoods and jobs now."