Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Tuesday 3rd November 2020

The Government announced an unprecedented package of support for companies impacted by COVID-19, including the coach industry, on 17 March 2020.

The Government has announced a range of measures to support companies impacted by COVID-19, including the coach industry. Further changes to the Covid-19 support schemes were made in April to ensure that more businesses could benefit from them. The Government has launched an online support finder tool to help businesses quickly and easily determine what financial support is available to them.

• Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) – providing funding 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 allow the payment of taxes to be deferred.

• Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme - launched on 20 April, this helps firms 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 covers the cost of wages backdated to 1 March. It was initially open for at least three months and has now been extended to the end of October. There is no limit on the amount of funding available for the scheme, and all UK-wide employers with a PAYE scheme are eligible.

• 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 are 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.

The above measures have been designed to ensure that companies of any size receive the help they need to get through this difficult time.

The Government has made up to £617m of additional funding available to local authorities to enable them to make payments of up to £25,000 to businesses which are ineligible for the existing grants schemes because of the way they interact with the business rates system. The guidance for local authorities on implementation of the business rates Expanded Retail Discount includes a list of properties eligible for the relief. Eligibility for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund is also taken from this list. This list does not provide specifically for properties used by coach businesses to benefit from the relief, and specifically makes ineligible properties that are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public. It is for local authorities to determine in each individual case when to grant business rates relief or grants, having regard to this guidance. Where businesses feel they may fit the eligibility criteria for business rates relief or grants, they should contact their local authority. Local authorities also have the discretionary power to offer hardship relief.

Given the support already put in place, as outlined above, the Government at this time has no plans to provide additional financial support bespoke to the coach industry.

Further details of all these schemes and support can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

The online business support finder tool can be found at: www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder.

School Restart funding was also announced on 8th August, providing local transport authorities with more than £40 million funding for the autumn term to create extra capacity, while social distancing measures remain in place.

Guidance for School Restart funding can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transport-to-school-and-other-places-of-education-autumn-term-2020

The Government continues to work closely with the coach sector to understand what the ongoing risks and issues are, and how these could be addressed, and we are reviewing opportunities for the sector to assist in wider recovery and resilience work. Government also recognises the role of the coach sector and the services it provides as a sub-sector of the leisure and tourism industry.

Department for Transport

This is a revised response. The Petitions Committee requested a response which more directly addressed the request of the petition. You can find the original response towards the bottom of the petition page (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/332280)