Forbes announces £14m fund to support larger hotels in Scotland

Scotland’s hotel industry has been given £14 million in an effort to secure jobs until next year.

The Hotel Recovery Programme, announced by Finance Secretary Kate Forbes at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing yesterday, will allow eligible businesses to apply for £250,000 in grants, which she said will support up to 3,000 jobs.

It will also offer “wraparound support” for businesses to ensure resilience during and in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms Forbes said of the fund: “Its core purpose will be to protect larger hotels, which have been badly effected by the events of the recent months.

“This is also about looking forward and successful applicants will be offered wraparound support to help strengthen their companies for the future.”

The fund will be open for expressions of interest by the end of next month, Ms Forbes said.

A further £1m in grants will be handed out by VisitScotland to self-catering businesses that are ineligible for other types of Scottish Government support, the finance secretary said.

The grants will be given in one-off £10,000 payments to help businesses get through the winter season.

She also reiterated calls for more fiscal powers for Scotland, following on from a meeting with Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay on Friday.

The meeting followed an announcement of a further £1.9 billion of funding being made available to the Scottish Government through the Barnett formula.

Ms Forbes said: “We could do more for more sectors if we had additional fiscal flexibilities.”