Rishi Sunak's £1billion bailout for Britain's hospitality industry to help firms hit by a collapse in Christmas bookings over recent weeks was today branded a 'dud cracker' and not even a 'sticking plaster' by hotel bosses.
The Chancellor has come forward with additional help for the hospitality and leisure sectors in England following days of urgent lobbying from MPs, firms and industry officials following the rise of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.
It includes one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises for businesses in the affected sectors in England, which the Treasury expects will be administered by local authorities and to be available in the coming weeks.
But Tim Rumney, the chief executive of Best Western Hotels in Great Britain said the support 'doesn't go far enough', and told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: 'It's like a dud cracker on Christmas Day.
Tim Rumney (left), the chief executive of Best Western Hotels in Great Britain, said the support 'doesn't go far enough', while Surinder Arora (right), founder and chairman of the Arora Group, has also been left unimpressed by the package
Rishi Sunak has released a £1billion bailout for the hospitality industry to help firms hit by a collapse in Christmas bookings
'The support is always welcome but it just doesn't go far enough to help us with the problems that we're going through at the moment with the cancellations and the impact on the finances of hotels and hospitality.
'What we would like to see is a reintroduction of the support package that was available during lockdown, so reinstatement of furlough, a commitment to extending the VAT relief beyond April 1, preferably reducing it down to 5 per cent which he saw initially, and a suspension of business rates.
'The problem that hotels and hospitality are having is cash flow. December is the most important month of the year for many businesses and it sees us through the first quarter of next year.
'A £6,000 grant really goes nowhere near protecting the cash position of our members in Best Western and of the wider hospitality industry.'
Surinder Arora, founder and chairman of the Arora Group, the largest private owner/operator of hotels in the UK, has also been left unimpressed by the package which he said would not give much help to larger