Businesses plead for taxpayer aid to be extended in line with Freedom Day delay

Jun 14, 2021

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is being urged to dig deep again and maintain taxpayer support for businesses if, as expected, Freedom Day is delayed due to rising coronavirus infection rates.

PM Boris Johnson is tipped to confirm on Monday evening that the timing for an end to all COVID-19 restrictions will slip beyond the 21 June date hoped for – by up to a month.

He will call for “one last heave“, according to a government source, in a bid to protect the NHS from the surge in Delta variant cases.

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While businesses will understand the caution, many are continuing to access and benefit from government aid including the furlough scheme – support that is due to be wound down from the end of June.

In the case of the Job Retention Scheme, the latest official figures have shown 3.4 million workers remained on furlough on 30 April.

Employers claiming under the scheme will have to contribute 10% of a monthly salary from July, as things stand, with the taxpayer support falling from 80% to 70%.

The scheme, which has cost £64bn to date, is due to be wound up completely by the end of September.

The business rates holiday enjoyed by hospitality, retail and leisure firms since the start of the pandemic is also among aid due to be scaled back from July.

The delay is of particular frustration to hospitality firms – forced to operate at limited capacity during the busiest months of summer and during a delayed Euro 2020 football championships involving three home nations.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, said thousands of operators will continue to lose money until the last phase of the road map out of lockdown restrictions is implemented.

She said: “Hospitality businesses cannot continue to operate under conditions that leave them unable to trade profitably and so we echo the importance of government support should there be any delay to the complete lifting of restrictions.”

She added: “Hospitality has been the hardest hit during the crisis, losing more than £87bn in sales, leaving businesses deeply in debt and at risk of suffering “economic long Covid” if the long term support set out by the chancellor for the sector at the budget is not sustained and adjusted.

“Even now, with partial reopening, sector sales remain down 42% and 300,000 jobs remain protected by furlough.”

Theatres are among those desperate for a complete reopening as restrictions limit audience capacity to 50%.

Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber, who has previously said he is prepared to risk jail if he can not fill theatres from 21 June, told the Daily Mail on Monday that the industry faced “bankruptcy” unless COVID rules were axed.

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