Leading the BID industry
Leading the BID industry
We have partnered with Croydon BID and over 100 more businesses to call on the Government to support the retail, hospitality and leisure sector before it is too late.
The campaign reaches every town and city across the UK as we look to support our businesses at a time of crisis. The impact of not supporting businesses now is catastrophic to thousands of businesses and to the future recovery of our economy.
The letter to the Government is as follows:
Dear Prime Minister,
RE: Give a #BusinessBooster to save our high streets, towns and city centres from extinction
We are writing to you on behalf of over 100 destinations across the UK and 100,000 retail, hospitality and leisure businesses to urge Government to provide a #BusinessBooster and urgent assurances that financial support will be provided to these sectors.
It is imperative that the Government acts quickly by offering financial assistance and other necessary interventions to those experiencing disruption following rising cases of the Omicron variant and the impact of “Plan B” measures. With consumer confidence expected to drop below its current level of -15 amid growing speculation of an impending lockdown, the time for action is now.
There is clearly growing concern of a lockdown following the announcement of Plan B restrictions on 8th December 2021 which must be reviewed on 29th December 2021, two days prior to New Year’s Eve. Businesses need certainty with many holding on to the glimmer of hope that New Year may bring.
The critical Christmas trading period is in tatters leaving businesses, particularly those within the hospitality, retail and leisure sector teetering on the brink of financial ruin and set to lose £4bn in sales. While we appreciate risks to health due to the Omicron variant, we cannot and should not forget the businesses who have had all but been shut down and want to continue trading safely.
Hospitality is the UK’s third largest sector, employing 3.2million people [10% of the UK workforce] and produces £130 billion of economic activity. These sectors are vital to our economic recovery and the current measures in place do not reflect the current concerns faced by businesses across our great nation. We urge you to act in order to save our high streets from extinction:
We are calling on Government to
In addition to the measures recommended, we are seriously concerned that the freelance and self-employed community which upends the hospitality, retail and leisure sectors have so far during the pandemic been largely overlooked. We therefore propose the introduction of a Discretionary Grant Fund of up to £7,500 per claim that will ensure this community is appropriately supported.
We represent one of the largest networks of businesses across the United Kingdom. Business improvement Districts alongside our partners including UKHospitality, British Beer and Pub Association and Night Time Industries Association are clear that action must come forward now to prevent a catastrophic chain reaction to the future of our economy.
We would urge you, your Government, MPs from all sides of the aisle to consider carefully the impact and potential loss to the economy if no action is taken to prevent the crisis we now all face economically.
We understand that business groups are being invited to share insights to Government, and proposed this is extended to the Business Improvement District industry. This will provide you with the opportunity to learn of the challenges town and city centres are currently facing, and work collaboratively together on suitable solutions during this challenging time.
In doing so, we hope this will provide greater clarity and the need to consider how the Government might support these sectors further.
We appreciate the pressures facing Government economically but failing to act not only see thousands of businesses go to the wall but the real prospect that billions of previously allocated Government funds going to waste simply because we did not act to save our economy.
I look forward to hearing from you in due course.
Matthew Sims
Chief Executive, Croydon BID
