Every little helps: UKHospitality asks for returned Tesco £585m grant to go to hospitality businesses

The move follows the news that supermarket Tesco will repay £585m of grant support to the Government.

The supermarket giant says it is looking into how it return the total sum of money granted to it in the early stages of the Coronavirus pandemic, and that the potential risks it faces from Coronavirus have passed.

Speaking about Tesco’s move, Kate Nicholls, UKHospitality chief executive says: “It is an admirable and altruistic gesture from a company that is clearly in a much better financial situation than the vast majority of the those in hospitality. The question now is what happens to this money, which the Government had intended to invest in supporting businesses."

Nicholls is calling on the Government to earmark the returned money to create a fund for those hospitality and tourism businesses that are at high risk of failure, have been closed since March or that have had no grant support, similar to the Cultural Recovery Fund.

“A Hospitality and Tourism Recovery Fund, including rent support to preserve the future of our high streets, would deliver a huge boost to businesses that are only just clinging onto life right when they need it,” she says.