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<p><del class="ministerial">We have introduced a number of measures since the start
of the pandemic to support tourism businesses, including those in Suffolk. This includes
the extended furlough and self-employed schemes and various government-backed loans,
grant schemes, business rates relief and a reduced VAT rate.</del></p><p><del class="ministerial">To
help the sector through the current lockdown, we have announced one-off top up grants
for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property. This
is in addition to the monthly Local Restrictions Support Grants (Closed). Local Authorities
in England have also been given an additional £594 million discretionary funding to
support their local businesses. This builds on the £1.1 billion discretionary funding
which local authorities in England have already received to support their local economies
and help businesses impacted.</del></p><p><del class="ministerial">Both my Department
and VisitEngland remain in regular contact with regional tourism stakeholders to assess
the substantial economic effects around the country.</del></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">On
19 November 2020, the government announced a £300 million Sports Winter Survival Package
(SWSP) to provide a lifeline to organisations that would otherwise not survive the
winter as a result of the restriction on spectators announced from 1 October. A provisional
allocation of £25 million was made to support the National League, covering steps
one to six, aiming to protect the immediate future of non-league football in England.
A further announcement on 27 January 2021 confirmed that Steps 3-6 of the National
League system will receive up to £10 million of grant support from the Package to
protect the immediate future of approximately 850 clubs over the winter period. Sport
England and the Independent Board are currently finalising the details of this support,
which will include any support for National League clubs in Slough, should they be
eligible. </ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial"><strong> </strong></ins></p><p><ins
class="ministerial">The SWSP support is in addition to the £10 million emergency package
we facilitated for the National League from the National Lottery, in October last
year, has benefitted the 66 clubs in the steps 1 and 2, and has enabled them to continue
playing behind closed doors after the return of fans was paused last autumn.</ins></p><p><ins
class="ministerial"><strong> </strong></ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The support
packages that have been available to the National League are in addition to the multi-billion
pound package of cross-sector business support from the Government that has enabled
many sports clubs and leisure businesses to survive, including the furlough scheme
and business interruption loan scheme. Sports have accessed many hundreds of millions
of pounds of support through this.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial"><strong> </strong></ins></p><p><ins
class="ministerial">The Government remains committed to engaging across the sector
to maintain a complete picture of the financial impact of Covid-19 to ensure sports
venues survive this difficult period wherever possible.</ins></p><p> </p><p> </p>
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