UKHospitality calls for Tesco's £585m grant repayment to create hospitality and tourism recovery fund

UKHospitality has called for the establishment of a Hospitality and Tourism Recovery Fund to support hospitality businesses that have not received any grant support and are at risk of closure.

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

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

"We are calling on the government to earmark that 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 most."

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