UK Hospitality, the trade group that represents the UK hospitality and tourism industry, has issued the following update to its members relating to covid government support and developments. Published on 5 January 2022.
COVID UPDATE
Drafted by UK Hospitality. For more information visit https://www.ukhospitality.org.uk/news/
Over the holiday period we have continued our conversation with Government official regarding the impact the restrictions and Government and medical agency messaging is having on trade. We know it has been extremely taxing to have one of the key trading periods stanched as many continue to struggle.
Grants
We have started the year on a slightly more positive foot. We have urged Government to push local authorities to ensure the grant funding announced is allocated as soon as possible. Some councils have managed to get their systems up and running on the first day back after the Christmas break and we expect others will soon have theirs up and running soon.
More good news is that following discussions with Government regarding the state aid cap we are delighted to see that the threshold has been slightly increased by £1 million.
Eligible businesses will need to be able to demonstrate a drop in trade of 30% or more for the eligible period compared to 2019. or the end of the month.
| Type | 2022 | 2021 | Eligibility |
| Small Amounts of Financial Assistance | £335,000 | £335,000 | Calculated on a three-year rolling basis. |
| COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance | £1,900,000 | £1,900,000 | For subsidies granted on a temporary basis to respond to a
national or global economic emergency |
| COVID-19 Business Grant Special Allowance | £10,000,000 | £9,000,000 | Only to cover fixed costs, a decline trade of 30%+ compared to 2019 for the ‘eligible period’ and must not exceed 70% of fixed costs |
| Total | £12,235,000 | £11,235,000 | Increase of £1 million |
We will continue to work hard on ensuring further financial support is allocated to businesses and we will be using the data you provide us to help us in this endeavour, and thank you for your continued engagement and support on this.
Restrictions
We have been working with special advisers to Number 10 and other government officials over the Christmas period to ensure no further restrictions came in. We were therefore pleased to see the Prime Minister yesterday acknowledge the disruption to the workforce caused by the spread of Omicron and announce that no further restrictions would be put in place such as those we are seeing in Scotland and Wales currently. While Johnson has confirmed Plan B restrictions will be in place for another three weeks, we are pushing for the restrictions to be fully lifted after this period.
Testing
During today’s press briefing the UK Health Security Agency announced that, from 11 January, it is suspending the requirement for people who test positive using a lateral flow test to then take a confirmatory PCR test. Anyone who receives a positive lateral flow test result should still report their result on GOV.UK and must self-isolate immediately.
When communicating this change to staff it should be noted that people who are eligible for the £500 Test and Trace Support Payment (TTSP) will still be asked to take a confirmatory PCR if they receive a positive lateral flow test result, to enable them to access financial support.
Travel
The Prime Minister has announced that from 4 am on Friday the requirement for pre-departure testing for people travelling overseas from England will be scrapped in order to help facilitate overseas travel. He also announced that the requirement to self-isolate on arrival until receipt of a negative PCR will also be removed for those arriving into England and will be replaced with the need to undertake a lateral flow test no later than the end of Day 2. If this test is positive, the person will then need to have a PCR test in order to identify any new variants entering the country.
Our Beavis Morgan Hospitality sector business support specialists remain available to assist you during this difficult time. Please contact Matthew Burge for further information or your usual Beavis Morgan Partner.