UK Hospitality Update

 

UKHospitality is the single voice for the hospitality industry. In addition to our powerful lobby, we provide expert knowledge and industry updates to ensure our members have the right information and tools to support the running of their businesses. Working closely with Government to ensure the decisions made support the industry.

 

With the emergence of the Coronavirus we are providing our members tailored updates through this time of uncertainty to ensure that they are kept informed with the latest information. As we champion the hospitality industry, and the severity of the situation, we are extending our updates to non-members. We want to ensure that all hospitality businesses are kept up to date and informed as the outbreak continues. Access to practical one on one guidance, webinars and tailored advice on other subjects will remain restricted to members only.

 

If you would like to learn more about how we support the hospitality sector contact a member of our team membership@ukhospitality.org.uk

 

UKHospitality

 

 

Political Update

UKHospitality has been pressing the government to temporarily suspend the wrongful trading provisions in the Insolvency Act to allow directors to make swift decisions during the crisis in order to protect jobs and continue trading. At Saturday’s press conference, the Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, confirmed that this would be introduced retrospectively from 1 March 2020 for 3 months to allow company traders to keep the businesses going without the threat of personal liability.

Under the plans, the UKs Insolvency Framework will add new restructuring tools for companies undergoing rescue or restructuring which mirroring USA Chapter 11 procedure which includes a moratorium from creditors enforcing their debts while they seek a rescue or restructure, protection of supplies to enable them to continue trading and a new restructuring plan binding creditors to that plan .

New Guidance on Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been published and the government has confirmed that it will now cover the cost of employer NICS and employer auto-enrolment pension contributions made on wages above the minimum recoverable under the scheme. It has also confirmed that furloughed workers are not considered to be working and hence considerations of NLW/NMW are not to be taken into account when calculating minimum pay. Government guidance for employers on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be found here whilst guidance for employees can be found here.

The Food Minister, George Eustice, has sent a public letter to all those working in the food supply chain, including take away and delivery, recognising them as key worker and thanking them for their help and support. The letter can be provided to all workers who are sometimes facing a challenge on being asked why they are at work or travelling to work.

 

UKH Priorities

Our focus continues to be ensuring that companies have sufficient cash to survive the next critical 4 weeks prior to receiving CJRS rebates. We are therefore continuing to press for greater flexibility on CBIL – including lifting the turnover threshold - and CCFF as well as suspending the FCA and credit rating agency requirements temporarily during the crisis to ease prescribed soft conditions for accessing commercial finance and other lending facilities.

We are pressing for changes to be made to the Hospitality Business Rates Grant by lifting the qualifying RV threshold and revisiting State Aid caps.

We are also working with BEIS on the new Insolvency Framework to seek to extend protections against debt recovery to all businesses during this period. Expanding the lease forfeiture moratorium to a debt enforcement moratorium without having to enter formal restructure/rescue requirements would help lessees and landlords.

We have also raised the issue of the Apprenticeship Levy and NLW increases during this period and have worked with others, including the Resolution Foundation who have called on the Government to delay implementation of the NLW for 6 months to protect jobs in the hospitality and retail sector

PPL and PRS have confirmed that they will follow Sky and BT and not charge licence fees or approach a business for payment during the closure period and we are anticipating confirmation from Home Office that all licence fee payments should be deferred too.

Processing of refunds – we are actively discussing with DCMS and BEIS the application of consumer law regarding the processing of refunds and action taken by credit card companies and OTAs unilaterally. BEIS is liaising with HMRC about the processing of VAT reclaims arising from refunds and HMRC has advised that 90% of repayments are processed within 5 days of receipt and has recommended that claims are made asap.

 

Volunteering update

The Government has put a call out for volunteers to help support the NHS and local health and social care provision. Over 750,000 have registered for the Royal Voluntary Service here. Volunteers are also sought to help with civil service tasks from home, e.g. processing claims and details will be provided shortly.

Those with spare hotel capacity who may be able to provide properties for accommodation of health workers, homeless can register with Crown Commercial Service enquiries@calders.org.uk and should direct any local request they receive to covid19@calders.org.uk

There is an urgent need for blast freezer availability to save £20m work of stock on SSL in the food wholesale supply – please let us know asap if you have spare capacity.

 

Health Update

As of 9am on 29 March 2020, a total of 127,737 people have been tested, of which 108,215 were confirmed negative and 19,522 were confirmed positive.

As of 5pm on 28 March 2020, 1,228 patients in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.

Find out the risk level in the UK, what to do if you have symptoms, and what the government is doing about the virus here.