COVID UPDATE
£1 BILLION SUPPORT FOR UK BUSINESSES MOST IMPACTED BY OMICRON BUT IS THERE ANYTHING FOR OUR NEGLECTED INDUSTRY?
Happy New Year to you all – the thousands of operators and the hundreds of thousands of hackney and private hire drivers who work in all weathers 24/7 365 days a year to keep the UK moving.
Sadly 2022 looks to be another challenging year for our industry. As we go to press on Wednesday 5 January 2022, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have restrictions imposed and England is sticking to its new Plan B.
Omicron is spreading at a rapid rate, face masks are mandatory and the general public is being encouraged to work from home and either being forced or deterred from socialising in large numbers.
Our
industry is already struggling with severe driver shortages, further hindered by outdated and lengthy licensing procedures and the roll-out of CAZs across the country, as highlighted by the NPHTA in numerous newspaper and television interviews.
Many members of our trade are seeing their incomes decimated yet again and we therefore have to ask the question: “is there any financial support for our industry?” – an industry which is quoted in DfT documents and most local authority policies as: “An integral part of the public transport infrastructure.”
ENGLAND
Grants: Whilst we do not believe members of our trade will be eligible to claim the one off £6,000 grant widely reported in the news; the government has also given £102 million boost to the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) fund for local authorities in England. Local authorities will have discretion to allocate this funding to businesses most in need. This ARG top up will be prioritised for those local authorities that have distributed the most of their existing allocation.
PHTM and the NPHTA fought hard last year to highlight our industry’s plight to councils, but we know that some were more forthcoming than others. However, our trade is classed as part of the supply chain to the hospitality /leisure sector. Therefore, if you can prove reduced income, and/or a need for help and/or possible staff redundancies then it is certainly worth applying for these ARG discretionary grants.
It is unlikely that your local authority will contact you directly, so we strongly advise all operators, sole traders and drivers
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to regularly check your councils’ website, both where you are licensed and where you live, to see when these grants open for applications as some are already live.
Be warned - these discretionary grants will be allocated on a first come first served basis so when the money runs out so will the grants!
WALES
Economy minister, Vaughan Gething, announced details of £120 million funding which will be available for retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism businesses and THEIR SUPPLY CHAINS.
Grants for rate payers: Businesses who pay non-domestic rates will be entitled to a payment of £2,000, £4,000 or £6,000 depending on their rateable value. Please note: businesses need to re-register their details online with their local authority in order to receive their payments.
In addition, hospitality and leisure businesses and their supply chains will be able to apply for top-up funding from a new Economic Resilience Fund. Eligible businesses can apply for grants of between £2,500 to £25,000 – with funding dependant on their size and number of employees.
Grants for non-rate payers / taxi drivers Councils will also administer a discretionary fund for busi- nesses and sole traders who do not pay rates. The fund will provide £500 to sole traders, freelancers, and taxi drivers, and £2,000 to employing businesses in impacted sectors.
Mr Gething said: “We will continue to monitor the impact of the spread of Omicron on businesses in Wales, and will consider whether additional emergency funding is needed in the new year.”
NORTHERN IRELAND
Before the new Covid restrictions were imposed, the NI Taxi Drivers’ Group had already issued a statement of their inten- tion to seek a Judicial Review into the consulation on a fare review, feeling let down by by the lack of support from the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) during the pandemic.
No specific grants have been announced as yet but there are calls from the Northern Ireland trade for Minister Mallon to act quickly and offer taxi drivers financial support grants urgently.
JANUARY 2022
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