UKHospitality has called for the establishment of a Hospitality and Tourism Recovery Fund to support hospitality businesses that have not received any grant support and are at risk of closure.
The move follows the news that supermarket Tesco will repay £585 million of grant support to the Government.
UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said: “It is an admirable and altruistic gesture from a company that is clearly in a much better financial situation than the vast majority of the those in hospitality. The question now is what happens to this money, which the Government had intended to invest in supporting businesses.
“We are calling on the Government to earmark that money, to create a fund for those hospitality and tourism businesses that are at high risk of failure, have been closed since March or that have had no grant support, similar to the Cultural Recovery Fund. A Hospitality and Tourism Recovery Fund, including rent support to preserve the future of our high streets, would deliver a huge boost to businesses that are only just clinging onto life right when they need it most.”
On the same day that the first vaccine has been approved some hope of a recovery is in sight, but as Rishi Sunak said in his spending review last week, the economic emergency has only just begun, and much more help is still needed across hospitality.
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Hospitality & Catering News: Hospitality & Tourism Recovery Fund – 2 December 2020 – Hospitality & Tourism Recovery Fund.
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