An announcement from the Treasury just now reveals a package of £1 billion to support businesses:

• Businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises, plus more than £100 million discretionary funding will be made available for local authorities to support other businesses
• Government will also cover the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for Covid-related absences for small and medium-sized employers across the UK
• £30 million further funding will be made available through the Culture Recovery Fund, enabling more cultural organisations in England to apply for support during the winter

This follows the doubling of support earlier in the week for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’s devolved assemblies. The Treasury acknowledges that recent ‘reduce social mixing’ guidance has seen a loss to hospitality businesses of 40-60% of their December trade. Sunak will no doubt be praying this announcement, and his reported opposition to Covid restrictions, will pick up his popularity rating among the public and the Tory grassroots…