In a letter to TTG acting news editor James Chapple, exchequer secretary to the Treasury Kemi Badenoch said the government was confident its current package of support measures would provide "substantial support" to businesses as Covid restrictions are lifted and "trade begins to pick up".
Badenoch added it would be "challenging" to target furlough support towards specific sectors in a "fair and deliverable way", with some firms working across multiple sectors "creating distortion".
"It may not be the case that this is the most effective or sensible way to provide support for those sectors most affected by Covid-19," said Badenoch.
Additionally, Badenoch said that while government recognised the "extreme disruption" the pandemic had inflicted on travel, it was "confident" the support it had provided to date – including funding for restart grants, additional restrictions grants, business rates relief and a new recovery loan scheme – would be sufficient.
Travel, though, has not been able to trade its way out of the crisis in the same way other sectors have, chiefly because of the restrictions imposed by the UK government which either place onerous testing restrictions on travellers, or effectively all but ban travel to specific countries.
The government is expected, on Friday (17 September), to overhaul the rules governing international travel, which will likely see the required testing standard for travel lowered, and the traffic light system simplified to comprise just a green list and greatly reduced red list.
It is understood the changes will likely apply from the start of October, coinciding with the third and final "checkpoint" review factored into the Global Travel Taskforce’s initial proposal for the traffic light regime.
This will coincide with the timetable for winding down the furlough scheme, at which point it appears travel will be left to fend for itself within the new framework off the back of another heavily suppressed summer’s trading.
"As the epidemiological situation improves worldwide, it is expected that there will be more opportunities for leisure travel with a greater number of destinations added," said Badenoch.
Her response comes after Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, Siobhain McDonagh, wrote to transport secretary Grant Shapps as part of the #SaveTravelJobs push to raise awareness of travel’s desperate plight in Westminster.
