Billions to save pubs restaurants from disaster

Cash grants and loans after we’re ordered to stay away

PUBS, restaurants and theatres will be provided with hundreds of billions of pounds in loans and grants to bail them out during the crisis.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said £330billion in loans will be available to businesses in the hospitality and leisure industry – hit by the Government’s advice for people to stay away – to help beat the pandemic.

And £25,000 grants will be offered to companies as part of a separate £20billion scheme.

Mr Sunak also guaranteed that contracts would be honoured by insurance companies. It had been suggested insurance firms might not compensate adequately protected pubs and restaurants for their losses.

The Chancellor yesterday announced he would give every single retail and entertainment venue – no matter what their size – one year off paying business rates. And he said the 700,000 smallest businesses, who do not pay rates, would get £10,000 in cash.

Mr Sunak said the intervention would help not just pubs and restaurants but shops, music venues and theatres. He said: ‘I am making available an initial £330billion of guarantees, equivalent to 15 per cent of our GDP. Any business who needs access to cash to pay their rent, their salaries, suppliers or purchase stock will be able to access a Government backed loan or credit on attractive terms.’ However, many critics said the loans should be made available interest free.

Separately, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced changes to planning rules to allow struggling restaurants and bars to operate as takeaways.

Last night hospitality firms gave the measures a mixed welcome. Gerry Ford, the founder and chief executive of Caffe Nero, which has 800 stores in the UK and around 6,500 employees, said it is ‘a good start’ but ‘there needs to be more’. Mr Ford said: ‘I wanted a holiday from VAT and PAYE and that wasn’t in there.

‘It is all loans that businesses are going to have to pay back. When this is over they will be working to repay money they had to borrow over an issue they didn’t cause.’ The British Beer and Pub Association said the Chancellor’s announcements did not go far enough. Chief executive Emma McClarkin said the Government must implement pub- specific measures within 24 hours to prevent ‘irreversible closures and job losses’. ‘We recognise as a sector that we are in unprecedented times and are prepared to play our part, but whilst we welcome the measures outlined today, they do not deal with the immediate cash flow and liquidity problems our industry faces,’ she said.

‘Without an urgent cash injection our sector will need to reduce its biggest cost, labour.’ The Chancellor said the grants would come on top of his plan to allow all business to access a £330billion Government-backed loan scheme.

The plans, announced in Downing Street yesterday, are designed to help businesses with their cash

flow and fixed costs. Mr Sunak said: ‘For those businesses which do have a policy that covers pandemics, the Government’s action is sufficient and will allow businesses to make an insurance claim against their policy.

‘But many of those businesses don’t have insurance – so we will go further.’ But Nik Antona, national chairman of the Campaign for Real Ale, said Mr Sunak ‘did not go far enough’, adding: ‘Making loans to businesses with no money coming in and multiple overheads through a period of no, or low trading, is simply kicking the can down the road.’