Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with industry representatives on ensuring fair access to finance for hospitality businesses.

The Government is committed to supporting the hospitality sector and officials in the Treasury and the Department of Business and Trade engage regularly with stakeholders in the sector to understand their views. We are dedicated to ensuring that businesses across the UK, including those in the hospitality sector, can access the capital they need to grow.

While the provision of financial services to companies is largely a commercial matter, the Government believes all customers should be treated fairly. The UK has a diverse and competitive financial services sector and businesses should consider a range of providers for their finance needs, as this encourages competition, improves choice, and helps keep prices competitive.

Working with the British Business Bank (BBB), we are delivering a range of targeted interventions for businesses, including those in the hospitality sector, such as loan guarantee programmes and equity investments, designed to address regional funding gaps and unlock investment opportunities.

The recent Spending Review settlement has increased the BBB’s total financial capacity to £25.6 billion, a two-thirds uplift compared to previous years, enabling the Bank to back tens of billions of pounds’ worth of additional lending and investment to SMEs and scale-ups.