The British Hospitality Association has welcomed yesterday’s government announcement of an additional £10m business support scheme to help flood affected businesses.
The announcement comes on the back of the BHA’s earlier plea to government to ‘act early’ to aid storm-struck UK hospitality and tourism businesses as they struggle to recover from the effects of flooding and winter storms which are now in their third month.
Hospitality and tourism businesses across the UK including hotels, B&Bs and restaurants, have played a pivotal role in the relief effort, offering shelter to individuals and families whose homes have been flooded.
Leading UK hotelier and BHA member Surinder Arora, founder and chief executive of the Arora Group, last week handed over his 119-bedroom hotel to the relief effort, offering emergency accommodation for affected homeowners in the Heathrow area. As well as offering free-of-charge overnight shelter, Arora Hotel’s foodservice provider Brakes is donating food and drink during the shelter period.
Insurance premiums likely to change
Meanwhile insurance bosses today met Ministers at No. 10 to discuss their response to the flooding, which has hit large parts of Southern and South West England. While the talks have primarily focused on domestic flooding they also examined flood defence policies for businesses. The ABI said that insurers will change premiums to reflect the flood risk. If the flood risk goes up then businesses may find themselves with higher insurance costs.