South Shields restaurant owner fears Chancellor's latest support package will make 'little difference'

Habibur Rahman, owner of the South Shields’s Indian Brasserie, part of Ocean Road's famed stretch of curry houses, was responding to Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s alterations to the Jobs Support scheme – November’s incoming successor to furlough – and the creation of business grants worth up to £2,100 a month.

While the package’s fine print has still to be confirmed, Mr Rahman doubts he will qualify for the full amount and says he may have to close his restaurant on a temporary basis if trade continues to fall amid ongoing restrictions forbidding friends from sitting together while the pandemic continues.

Mr Rahman, 57, said: “Any support is welcome but if, for instance, we got £1,000 then it would make little difference in the current situation.

"We are struggling every single day with bookings down about 50% on what they would normally be at this time of year.

"People who would normally start booking Christmas parties with us are instead waiting to see if things improve and, of course, you cannot mix and match who you sit with because of the restrictions.”

Discussing the immediate future if social distancing measures do not ease, Mr Rahman said: “We are not in lockdown, but we might as well be, and I do not think it will there will be any change before Christmas.

"If that is the case, or we do go into lockdown, then I will probably close on a temporary basis because people are just not confident in coming out at the moment.”

Addressing the House of Commons about the “direct cash grants”, Mr Sunak told MPs: “It will be up to local authorities to decide how best to distribute these grants, giving them the necessary flexibility to respond to local economic circumstances.

“But I am providing enough funding to give every business premises in the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors a direct grant worth up to £2,100 for every month Tier 2 restrictions apply.”

Mr Sunak has also altered the incoming Jobs Support scheme after it attracted criticism for asking employers to pay 33% of lost wages to staff working a minimum of 33% of their usual hours.

Employees will instead only have to work 20% of their normal hours to qualify with employers now paying just 5% of lost wages.

Councillor Iain Malcolm, the Labour leader of South Tyneside Council, one of the LA7 local authorities in negotiations with the Government about whether the North-East should move into Tier 3 or not, co-signed an LA7 response to the Chancellor’s announcements.

Stating “we are pleased the Chancellor has listened”, it added: “While we await full details, this package recognises the ongoing difficulties businesses are facing and extra financial support was needed regardless of the level of restrictions in place.

“We now need to be given the resources to process cash grants in a timely manner for businesses in High Alert Level (Tier 2) regions that, despite being able to remain open, are under huge financial constraints as the Chancellor himself recognised.

“It remains to be seen what impact the grants, as well as the revised jobs support scheme and contributions to the self-employed, will have.”

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