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CoronavirusHospitalityLatest NewsSick pay

Hospitality, entertainment and leisure sectors gain new financial support

by Adam McCulloch 21 Dec 2021
by Adam McCulloch 21 Dec 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak
ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy
Chancellor Rishi Sunak
ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has set out measures to help England’s hospitality sector, unveiling a £1bn fund of cash grants of up to £6,000 per premises for each eligible firm.

He said the government would also help certain firms with the cost of statutory sick pay for Covid-related absences.

The initiative is in response to the collapse in footfall facing the leisure, culture and hospitality sectors as the Omicron variant causes a surge in Covid infection across the UK.

An extra £30m to help theatres and museums was included in the announcement, as it emerged that London’s Natural History Museum has had to close for a week because of Covid-related staff absences.

Sunak would not say whether further help would come should further restrictions be announced, but he insisted he would “always respond proportionately and appropriately to the situation we face”.

He added that the measures announced today were comparable to the grants that were on offer when businesses were fully closed earlier this year.

Business support and working from home

Are Sunak’s business support measures enough? 

Coronavirus and workplace health and safety 

Work from home guidance begins today in England 

The package announced comprises:

  • £683m for targeted grants for hospitality and leisure businesses in England. Around 200,000 businesses will be eligible for the grants which will be administered by local authorities and will be available in the coming weeks.
  • £102m for firms outside the hospitality and leisure industries but which might be vital to the supply chains in those sectors. This is on top of £250m of previously allocated funding.
  • £30m for theatres, orchestras and museums which have been forced to shut down again as people exercise extra caution in the face of the latest rise in Covid cases. This support will run through to March 2022.
  • The return of the government’s statutory sick pay rebate scheme (SSPRS) for companies with fewer than 250 employees. The scheme reimburses firms for the cost of statutory sick pay for Covid-related absences, for up to two weeks per employee.

On Monday, a further 91,743 Covid cases were reported across the UK – the second highest daily total on record. Sunak highlighted support that was already in place that would last through to next spring, such as a reduced rate of VAT for the tourism and hospitality sectors and a discount on business rates.

Some 30 major West End shows have also had to suspend their runs, many until the new year, in response to the surging virus.

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Although Sunak’s intervention was welcomed, responses to the business support measures from the hospitality sector focused on the low level of funding available for businesses. There were also renewed calls for higher rates of statutory sick pay so people would be less inclined to work while ill.

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Adam McCulloch

Adam McCulloch first worked for Personnel Today magazine in the early 1990s as a sub editor. He rejoined Personnel Today as a writer in 2017, covering all aspects of HR but with a special interest in diversity, social mobility and industrial relations. He has ventured beyond the HR realm to work as a freelance writer and production editor in sectors including travel (The Guardian), aviation (Flight International), agriculture (Farmers' Weekly), music (Jazzwise), theatre (The Stage) and social work (Community Care). He is also the author of KentWalksNearLondon. Adam first became interested in industrial relations after witnessing an exchange between Arthur Scargill and National Coal Board chairman Ian McGregor in 1984, while working as a temp in facilities at the NCB, carrying extra chairs into a conference room!

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