division_name: Coronavirus: Supporting Businesses and Individuals
motion: <p class="indent" pid="b823.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House calls on the Government to support businesses and individuals still struggling as a result of the coronavirus crisis in the forthcoming budget by extending business rates relief for at least another six months, extending the temporary 5 per cent reduced rate of VAT for three months after restrictions are lifted or for another six months, whichever is later, helping British businesses struggling under the burden of Government-guaranteed debt by ensuring that small businesses can defer paying loans back until they are growing again, extending and reforming the furlough scheme so that it lasts whilst restrictions are in place and demand is significantly reduced, immediately confirming that the fourth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant will be set at 80 per cent of pre-coronavirus crisis profits and extending eligibility to that scheme to include anyone with a 2019-20 tax return and fixing the gaps in coronavirus support schemes to support those who have been excluded from the beginning of the crisis; and further calls on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make a monthly oral statement to Parliament updating the House on these matters.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b830.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;retail, hospitality and leisure businesses&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b830.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;certainty that they will not face full business rates in the next financial year&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b836.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I honestly don&#8217;t know how I can carry on for much longer&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b836.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I had one woman who posted on our Facebook group asking for someone to come and collect her dogs because she couldn&#8217;t afford to feed them anymore. She herself had been eating dog food because that was the only thing she had left in her house&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b860.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It&#8217;s all about surviving month by month from now on&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b860.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We have had to go into our savings as we are still paying rent and utilities etc even though the business is closed; in our 43 years there we have never experienced anything like this. Hopefully we can save the business.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b860.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We have had no help to keep us afloat... It&#8217;s been awful. We will need rents paid and business rates paid to help us for the next year.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b860.0/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I have had no company income for 7 of the previous 11 months. Business is still solvent, but all reserves built up used&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b863.1/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Sadly, we&#8230;will not be able to save every job and every business&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2021-01-11">11 January</phrase> 2021; Vol. 687, c. 23.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b864.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;What I do know is we sell &#163;1.2bn of Scottish food into the European Union every year and that has got an awful lot more difficult, an awful lot more expensive and an awful lot slower.&#8221;</p>