Support For Retail And Hospitality

We joined partners and fellow London BIDs in calling for greater support for the retail and hospitality industries following the re-introduction of Covid measures prior to Christmas. We signed a letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak on behalf of our members that, while welcoming the support package introduced for leisure and hospitality businesses, suggested more support was needed. The letter highlighted that with grants limited to £6k, many larger businesses in the hospitality and retail sectors in central London and other city centres, would struggle and had been hit hard by cancellations and drop in demand caused by spread of the Omicron variant.

In addition to this, we signed a letter on behalf of our members to the Prime Minister, calling for urgent assurances that financial support would be provided to retail, hospitality and leisure industries in order to protect high streets, town and city centres across the UK. The letter was sent on behalf of over 100 destinations and 100,000 industry representatives in response to the Government’s move to introduce ‘Plan B’ restrictions on 8 December. The letter, led by Croydon BID, called for various measures to offset the economic impact to businesses including rates relief, a VAT extension and to provide financial grants.

You can read more about our Collective Voice advocacy work here.