In a debate on golf tourism the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Heritage and Tourism Nigel Huttleston said that it was down to local authorities to use the £1.694 billion discretionary fund allocated to them by the government to aid the struggling events sector. Huttleston stated that he would “encourage and expect local authorities to be sympathetic to applications from those businesses and others that have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions but are ineligible for the other grant schemes.”
90% of businesses in the events sector believe they cannot survive beyond the next two years without further government support, according to a UK Events Survey conducted by the mia. The same survey also found that businesses surveyed had lost an average of over £2,560,000 in revenue to date.