“Why is the funding to support small businesses for the pandemic being turned off?”

The Great British Entrepreneur Awards founder Francessca James met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak to ask him questions about entrepreneurship, from entrepreneurs in our own community. 

Maddie Alexander-Grout, founder and CEO of My VIP Rewards asked, “Why is the funding to support small businesses for the pandemic being turned off? We’re still seeing small businesses close every single day as a knock-on effect. And is there a plan for an after effect fund?”

In response, the Chancellor said, “Well, we’re not done supporting small businesses, and we’ve actually written out to over 2 million businesses, letting them know about five things we’re doing to support them. Two, in particular, I think will be of interest. One is business rates, which I know for a lot of retail, and hospitality businesses is always a concern. So this year we’re giving a 50% discount on people’s business rates bill, worth up to 110,000 pounds per business - so that will really help. 

“The other thing we’re doing is, is cutting employment taxes. So there’s a thing called the employment allowance, which gives smaller medium-sized employers, a discount on their employer and national insurance bills. We made that more generous last month, and that means an extra thousand-pound tax cut for small businesses who are taking on employees. So hopefully those two things will help” he explained. 

Watch the full interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer here.