Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Thursday 7th May 2020

The Government has announced an unprecedented package of support for companies impacted by COVID-19, including the job retention and business loan schemes.

The Government has announced a range of measures to support companies impacted by COVID-19, including the aviation industry. These measures include:

• Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) – providing funding to businesses to help businesses across a range of sectors to pay wages and suppliers, even while experiencing severe disruption to cashflows.

• “Time to Pay” - HMRC is ready to help all businesses and self-employed individuals, experiencing temporary financial difficulties due to coronavirus, including “Time to Pay” arrangements, which allows the payment of taxes to be deferred.

• Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme - launched on 20 April, this helps firms continue to keep people in employment by allowing businesses to put workers on temporary leave. The government will pay cash grants of 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500, providing workers stay employed. The Scheme will cover the cost of wages backdated to 1 March. It was initially open for at least three months and it has now been extended to the end of June. The option remains to extend for longer if necessary. There is no limit on the amount of funding available for the scheme, and all UK-wide employers with a PAYE scheme will be eligible. Further guidance will be set out in due course.

• Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme - has been created to support long-term viable small and medium sized businesses who may need to respond to cash-flow pressures by seeking additional finance. To be eligible, a business must be based in the UK and be impacted by COVID-19, have an annual turnover of no more than £45 million, and be seeking a loan up to £5 million. The scheme is delivered through commercial lenders, backed by the government-owned British Business Bank. There are more than 40 accredited lenders able to offer the scheme, including all the major banks.

• Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme – all firms with a turnover of more than £45 million will now be able to apply for up to £25 million of finance, and larger firms with a turnover of more than £250 million can apply for up to £50 million. The Government will provide a guarantee to enable banks to make these loans. It will support business that were viable before the COVID-19 outbreak, which are otherwise unable to access the finance they need.
All of these measures have been designed to ensure that companies of any size receive the help they need to get through this difficult time – including airports, airlines and the wider supply chain.

If airlines or airports find themselves in trouble as a result of COVID-19 even following the Government’s cross-economy wage and financial interventions, the Transport Secretary and Chancellor have confirmed that the Government is prepared to enter discussions with individual companies seeking bespoke support as a last resort, having exhausted all other options. Any intervention would need to represent value for money for taxpayers.

Further details of all these schemes and support can be found at https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support

Department for Transport

Parliamentary Debate

This petition was debated in Parliament on Thursday 25th June 2020

See Debate Details