LETTER: The government is letting us down
A reader discusses a lack of support during the pandemic.
I am reaching out for help as there is a whole slice of industry that isn’t getting supported during this pandemic!
I am a business owner in the hospitality industry and many of us are being let down by our local council and national government as we are not eligible for any grants and funding due to a technicality.
I operate a limited company within a building that is owned by a brewery (loose term) my company generates income via a commission of liquor sales, this is very typical of the industry now and there are hundreds of us in Stafford alone. The commission generated is enough so that our company employ the staff and covers other business costs relating to the running of a business, if our businesses fail it will be devastating for the thousands of employees attached to our companies.
In every case I have spoken to; their premium contractor (brewery) are supporting them by means of a custodian arrangement but most of our income is through universal credit which isn’t designed to support the running of a business. In an email reply from a grant refusal, the reviews manager from Cannock Chase District Council suggested that I contact Amber Taverns Ltd (brewery) as they will have received the grants on my behalf, this isn’t the case as nearly every brewery is too big to access the grants.
I am not suggesting that we should be entitled to all the support available. I will survive if assisted by Additional Restrictions Grant and the £1000 promised by the Prime Minister to ‘wet led’ pubs for being closed in December. I think it would cause licencing, EHO, policing and other authorities’ tremendous issues if all the good publicans of the town were to fail just before the restrictions are lifted.
Steve Tinsley, ST Leisure Ltd (Hogarths Stafford)
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