Hotelier Matharu seeks cash support to help industry survive Covid fallout
A LEADING Asian businessman has urged continued support for the UK’s hospitality sector as a third lockdown began in England this week.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak offered a £4.6 billion support package for businesses last Tuesday (5) to soften an expected recession caused by a surge in Covid-19 cases that prompted prime minister Boris Johnson to announce a fresh lockdown last Monday (4). Tony Matharu, of the Central London Alliance, called
for funding to support businesses that have borne the brunt of lockdowns. “The government is also responsible for ensuring every viable business obtains the support it needs, for as long as needed. Survival until spring will be futile if businesses fail immediately thereafter, so the articulated support must continue.”
Hotelier Matharu is also the chairman of Integrity International Group, which invests in London’s property market. He founded London’s Blue Orchid Hotels, an independent hotel chain.
Calling for a “clear roadmap that will lead London out of this crisis”, Matharu has sought instant cash support to enable enterprises in hospitality and culture to survive; an extension of the VAT cut to March 2022 for the hospitality sector; an extension of the business rates holiday until at least March 2022 to help businesses deal with the loss of trade due to restrictions and expansion of the grants programme delivered via councils, based on the number of businesses within a borough, rather than the number of residents.
Matharu added: “When London succeeds, so does the rest of the UK. London’s status as a global city, continuing to generate economic surplus, is at acute risk and any complacency that London will simply survive because it always has done, despite the worst economic recession for over 300 years... must be avoided.
“A successful, strong and stable London, without the shadow of uncertainty hanging over it, supports the Government’s levelling up, its Building Back Better and its Global Britain agendas.”