Hospitality has been pleading for over a week with the Treasury to provide additional financial support following weeks of spiraling booking cancellations – and today, at last, Rishi Sunak has responded.
The Chancellor this afternoon unveiled new measures of financial support for the sector in the form of one-off £6k grants for businesses hit by Covid-19, following a week of mounting criticism that saw him accused of not acting swiftly enough and even ‘going into hiding’.
The new measures announced today will enable businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors to claim a one-off cash grant of up to £6,000 – but many operators seem to feel that this barely scratches the surface.
Sunak has also said the government will be reintroducing the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme, which enables small and medium-sized businesses to claim government compensation to cover employees’ sick pay.
However, restaurateurs, landlords and other industry experts have been quick to point out that this isn’t really enough to tide over a sector that relies on Christmas takings to see it through into the spring.
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Sacha Lord, Manchester’s Night Time Economy Advisor, has been very outspoken when it comes to fighting the corner of Manchester’s small hospitality businesses – many of whom are facing closure without a significant package of support and are hoping to see further measures such as the return of furlough and business rates relief reintroduced.
Following the Chancellor’s announcement, he was quick to tweet his thoughts on the new package, which boiled down to the succinct summary: “It’s not a package. It’s an insult.”
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We’re providing new support worth £1bn including:
➡️New grants for hospitality & leisure sectors – up to £6,000 per business premises.
➡️Adding £30m to the Culture Recovery Fund to support culture.
Elsewhere, UK Hospitality tweeted their support of the measures, stating: “We’re pleased @RishiSunak has listened to our pleas.
“This is a generous package building on existing support measures to provide an immediate emergency cash injection for those businesses who, through no fault of their own, have seen their most valuable trading period annihilated.”
However, it doesn’t appear that this take has gone down well with the majority of hospitality operators on Twitter – with a torrent of replies to UK Hospitality suggesting many still feel let down and forgotten.
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Scott McVittie tweeted: “Sounds generous for headlines but that barely covers a fraction of the monthly payroll. @UKHospKate this minimises they crisis we are facing”
Marshall Stephens said: “‘Generous’ I lost that much in cancellations last week.”
Whilst Gareth Walters said: “This is the opposite to the reaction I’ve seen across bar/restaurant businesses – no one using the phrase generous”
The Treasury justifies the pitiful level of support because there are "fewer insolvencies" (insolvency rules have been suspended for two years) and "higher vacancies" (there's a recruitment crisis thanks to Brexit) and hospitality has "more cash in the bank" than March 2020. 1/2
£6k isn’t even a weeks trading. We’re drowning. Every day you don’t lock us down but tell people to stay home we haemorrhage money. We can’t send staff home but we bring no money in. We need a furlough scheme and serious guidance so we can plan what to do
Lazy Lounge added, “Without a furlough scheme, £6,000 isn’t enough to get through 5 days let alone what could quite possible be the next few months.
“Madness! Thousands still going to lose their jobs and many businesses going to disappear.”
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Whilst Zoey Clarke said, “6k!? What a slap in the face. That wouldn’t cover the wine order for Christmas. How are you claiming this is generous, will it cover just one week’s salary for an SME?! Rent, tax, lost income. Hopeless. Thank God @Sacha_Lord is here.”
Following a week in which the hospitality industry’s pleas have fallen on seemingly deaf ears, it seems there is more still to be done following these announcements – with many hoping they can continue to pile on the pressure to get more support from the Treasury.
Clearly, more needs to be done in order for hospitality to truly feel supported – especially with reports of further restrictions continuing to loom on the horizon.
Rishi Sunak, however, has said that he thinks the government has responded ‘generously’.
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He told Sky News: “We’ve responded I think generously today.
“The grants that we’ve outlined, up to £6,000 pounds, are comparable to grants that we provided to hospitality businesses when they were completely closed earlier this year so there’s a benchmark for you.”
Feature image – SKY / Albert’s Schloss
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Parklife pumps more than £155,000 back into Greater Manchester community projects
Danny Jones
Parklife is once again proving why it’s such an important event for Greater Manchester, not just in terms of music and culture, but through the money it pumps back into the community through grassroots projects.
The annual music festival at Heaton Park raises significant funds for local initiatives with each edition via the official Parklife Community Fund.
Partnered with the Manchester, Bury, and Rochdale councils, the finances generated through those who attend not only Parklife but also other concerts held at the outdoor venue, such as the recent Oasis shows, help local groups that make a positive, tangible difference in their neighbourhoods.
This year alone, the total includes £55,000 raised from guest list donations by festival attendees, as well as a further £100k generated from other events held in Heaton Park, making 2025 one of, if not the biggest, years for donations to date.
Distributed by the City Council and the local authorities in Bury and Rochdale throughout the respective boroughs, the aim is not only to give back but to enhance local life, through everything from important youth programmes to community wellbeing and improvement schemes.
Launched back in 2017, the festival fund is approaching nearly half a million pounds raised on behalf of local causes, strengthening its connection with the nearby communities surrounding its host site.
The region’s vast and stunning green space is a huge tourist attraction in itself, meaning literal grassroots causes like the woodland management group are vital to maintaining that beauty and status.
Other projects include an astronomy group, as well as fitness drives like ‘RockFit’ (seen above), which now meets at Heaton Park regularly to promote exercise for both physical and mental health.
It’s also worth noting that the fund covers surrounding areas like Higher Blackley and Crumpsall; Sedgley, Holyrood, St Mary’s and even South Middleton.
You can see more examples of the charitable community work in action down below.
Credit: Supplied
Sam Kandel, founder of Parklife Festival, said of the fund: “Parklife is proud to call Heaton Park home, and it’s really important to us that the festival has a lasting, positive impact on the local community.
“The Community Fund is our way of saying thank you to residents and supporting the brilliant grassroots projects that make Manchester, Bury, and Rochdale such special places to live.”
Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon (Exec Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods) added: “Parklife brings people from Manchester and beyond to our wonderful Heaton Park, and it is right that the communities living close by benefit from the event through reinvestment in local initiatives that will leave a legacy for all.
“The Parklife community fund means that local communities choose what’s important to them and they have the opportunity to bid for funds to invest in projects that enhance local amenities, strengthen community connections and wellbeing for the benefit of everyone.”
Those looking to benefit from the fund can apply online now and you can find out more information by contacting the relevant councils’ neighbourhood pages.
Work finally begins on Greater Manchester’s new ‘innovation hub’ in Atom Valley creating 20,000 jobs
Emily Sergeant
It’s official… work has finally begun on the first major development in Atom Valley.
If you’re not familiar with Atom Valley, this new project is set to be a unique innovation ‘cluster’ – plans of which were approved by local leaders all the way back in summer 2022 – with the potential to create up to 20,000 new jobs in Greater Manchester once it’s complete.
Greater Manchester wants Atom Valley to become a ‘springboard’ for new and emerging companies and researchers, giving them the support and the opportunities they need to trial and commercialise their innovations right here in our region.
The new development which ground has now been broken on is a Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre (SMMC) – which is set to become a thriving hub of innovation.
Today is a big day for GM.
We break ground on a new research centre at Atom Valley – our emerging world-class cluster in advanced materials and manufacturing.
Here, start-ups and emerging companies will be able to pioneer new technologies and scale up their ambitions, all while creating jobs and driving growth across the region in the process.
Located next to the Kingsway Business Park in Rochdale, it will offer 30,000 sq ft of new laboratory space, workshops, and design studios, as well as a lecture theatre, meeting rooms, office space, and flexible workspace for start-ups.
With the ‘right’ support, local leaders say the SMMC will also be a vital link between Atom Valley and the Oxford Road Corridor, ultimately forging a pathway for new companies and projects to expand from the city centre out into the wider city region.
Work has finally begun on Greater Manchester’s new ‘innovation hub’ in Atom Valley / Credit: DLA Architecture
Mayor Andy Burnham says this is the ‘most ambitious development’ in Atom Valley so far
“It will help unleash the untapped potential of the world-leading research taking place across our city region, bridging that crucial gap from invention to bringing those new innovations to the market,” he explained. “And it will create a new hi-tech corridor from the out to the north of Greater Manchester, creating jobs and new opportunities for start-ups to scale up their ambitions.
“This is integrated, well-connected development in action, and a clear sign of our mission to spread the benefits of growth right across our city region.”
Georgina Pellant -
21st December 2021 
