All retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with a rateable value of less than £51,000 will be exempt from paying business rates over the next financial year. “Our manifesto promised that for shops, cinemas, restaurants and music venues… with a rateable value of less than £51,000… we would increase their business rates retail discount to 50%. “Today I can go further, and take the exceptional step, for this coming year, of abolishing their business rates altogether,” the Chancellor said. The Chancellor has said that statutory sick pay will be available to anyone advised to self-isolate, with sick notes available through the 111 service. For those who do not qualify for sick pay, it will be easier to get benefits, the chancellor added. Statutory sick pay is paid by employers, meaning that those who are self-employed are not eligible. However, agency workers are entitled. An employee must earn at least £118 per week in order to qualify. It is currently set at £94.25 per week. Following an announcement that the government will pay statutory sick pay from day one, rather than day four, Sunak added: “Not everyone is eligible for statutory sick pay. There are millions of people working hard, who are self-employed or in the gig economy. They will need our help, too. So, to support them during this period, we will make it quicker and easier to get benefits.” The cost to a business of having to have someone off work for up to 14 days will be refunded, the Chancellor confirmed. Sunak added £2bn will be allocated to cover firms that lose out because staff are off sick. He says this will apply to firms that employ fewer than 250 staff. Sunak has announced that a coronavirus loan scheme is to be introduced to cover the cost of salaries and bills, which will offer loans of up to £1.2m to support small and medium sized businesses. The loans will be guaranteed by the government. He told the House of Commons: “The government will offer a generous guarantee on those loans, covering up to 80% of losses, with no fees, so that banks can lend with confidence.” “This will unlock up to £1bn of attractive working capital loans to support small businesses, with more as needed.” “One of the UK’s event industry associations, representing many agencies and venues, HBAA, welcomed the Chancellor’s measures.
Lex Butler, the HBAA Chair, commented: “Many HBAA members – hotels, venues and agencies – are SMEs and they are expecting to experience significant cash flow problems as a result of the coronavirus issue. So we’re delighted by many of the Chancellor’s Budget initiatives that will alleviate the pressures that they will face.
“The 12-month abolition of business rates for smaller businesses; the extension of this to include the leisure and hospitality sector; the coronavirus temporary business interruption loan scheme and the refunding of sick pay for staff off sick for up to 14 days will all benefit our smaller business members. The freeze in fuel and alcohol duty and the investments in roads will also help the whole of our industry.
“The cancellation and reduction of meetings and events is already impacting on everyone in our industry so these measures are all very welcome.
“While we would have liked support for training, addressing the immediate issues that we are facing is rightly the priority.
“As this industry generates £43bn each year for the UK economy, we hope that the government will keep the issues that the industry is facing under ongoing review and take further steps to ensure that this valuable sector doesn’t decline into disrepair through lack of support.”
