Struggling hospitality venues, including restaurants, bars and pubs will be able to claim a one-off £6,000 government grant to help them through the Christmas period. However, there is no direct mention of help for business meetings and event venues or the wider industry.
As a result of the fast-spreading Omicron Covid variant, hospitality venues are dealing with a wave of booking cancellations in what is supposed to be the busiest time of year.
Boris Johnson said that people were “rightly exercising more caution” as a result of the spread of Omicron, and acknowledged the impact this was having on businesses at “the busiest time of the year”. According to UKHospitality, many businesses have lost up to 60 per cent of their trade in December.
However, the lack of direct financial support for the meetings industry has already been met with criticism as Juliet Price, consultant executive director of HBAA said: “The Chancellor’s grants are in principle, welcome. But we wait to see the ‘small print’ to see how many of our 200 plus member organisations will be eligible for them. £6,000 may be helpful to small businesses but it won’t sustain larger venues or agencies with greater liabilities and no appreciable income in sight for most of Q1 next year.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the government had made the decision to offer a financial package because, “the spread of the Omicron variant means businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors are facing huge uncertainty, at a crucial time.
“So we’re stepping in with £1 billion of support, including a new grant scheme, the reintroduction of the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme and further funding released through the Culture Recovery Fund.”
The bailout package will be divided up as follows:
- Grants for hospitality and leisure businesses in England, worth up to £6,000 per premise. The Treasury has set aside £683m for these payments, which will be administered through local authorities and will be available in the coming weeks.
- Further grants for businesses in England, worth £102m, intended to help businesses most in need, and again administered through local authorities.
- The resumption of the statutory sick pay rebate scheme, which will reimburse employers in the UK with fewer than 250 workers for the cost of paying statutory sick pay for Covid-related absences for up to two weeks.
- An extra £30m for arts organisations in the UK, paid through the culture recovery fund.
Joss Croft, CEO of UKinbound added that "it is astounding that hospitality businesses, which can trade, will receive sector-specific support, but the UK’s tourism supply chain, such as inbound UK tour and coach operators, are being left to wither and die.
“Just yesterday VisitBritain announced that the UK’s combined inbound tourism loss in spending for 2020 & 2021 is £47bn, and today’s announcement and lack of meaningful support rubs further salt into the wounds of the UK’s inbound tourism industry.”
The Labour party was also critical of the bailout, stating it should have been on offer when the Government switched to 'Plan B' measures earlier this month.
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
