Around 200,000 business will be eligible for payments.
Businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises.
The Treasury said another £102 million discretionary funding will be made available for local authorities under the Additional Restrictions Grant to support “other businesses” but did not specify what this meant.
The Treasury said: “Local Authorities will have discretion to allocate this funding to businesses most in need. The ARG top up will be prioritised for those local authorities that have distributed the most of their existing allocation.”
Another possible consolation for travel is that the government will cover the cost of statutory sick pay for Covid-related absences “for small and medium-sized employers across the UK”.
Funding consists of:
• £683 million for targeted grants for hospitality and leisure businesses in England
• £102 million top-up for the Additional Restrictions Grant
• £30 million for Culture Recovery Fund
• £80 million for the Scottish Government, £50 million for Wales and £25 million for the Northern Ireland Executive
Funding for the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate scheme will be additional to these amounts.
Advantage Travel Partnership chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said said she was awaiting details on the definition of ‘leisure’ businesses as retail travel agents were included under ARG previously.
She added: "However, this will mean that 50% of Advantage’s non-retail businesses are unlikely to qualify for grants despite seeing an 80% drop in revenue.
"In addition, travel companies will have to fight tooth and nail against other businesses to qualify for the Additional Restrictions Grants that the chancellor has announced, but come at the discretion of local authorities.
"Last week we wrote to the chancellor again urging him to provide financial support to the travel trade, and to recognise that they have been locked down, unable to fully trade and yet again it looks as though our members are at the back of the queue.”
Gary Lewis, The Travel Network Group chief executive, added:
“Today’s government pledge of £1 billion in financial support for the hospitality sector is welcome news for businesses in that sector, but what about the travel industry?
"We are a sector that’s been hit harder and for longer and with no industry-specific support. We’ve given back our profits refunding consumers whilst demand for travel has fallen off a cliff.
“Consumers have little or no confidence in what’s around the corner restrictions-wise and the fear and cost around return-home Covid testing has shattered public confidence in travelling abroad – we’re sending a plea to the chancellor: Help save travel.”
