Richard has today signed a cross-party letter calling on the Prime Minister to take urgent action to help the wedding industry.
Although weddings will be allowed to resume with unlimited guests from 21 June, when lockdown is eased on April 12, weddings will be permitted for 15 guests only, rising to 30 on May 17, while indoor events are being permitted with 1,000 from mid-May. The government has previously been made aware by the UK Weddings Taskforce that only 50 or more guests is commercially viable across the sector.
A cross-party group of MPs have therefore written to the Prime Minister, calling him to help the sector survive and protect 400,000 jobs in 60,000 businesses.
The group has proposed the following:
- A cash grant of £880m to be accessed as soon as possible
- A temporary VAT reduction to 5% and business rates exemption available to other sectors to be extended to all wedding businesses until April 2022
- Parity with other events permitted at 50% capacity in Step 3
- That wedding businesses are recognised as LSRG (closed) until numbers of 50+ are permitted
- That weddings are included in Step 2 testing, piloting testing schemes.
Richard said: "The wedding sector has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and I urge the government to support these businesses and look at our recommendations."
The letter follows an earlier one sent to the Minister for Small Business in February, which can be read here. The letter to the Prime Minister can be read in the link below.
