Andy Burnham says Government is not offering enough Tier 3 business support

26 November 2020, 20:58 | Updated: 19 October 2022, 11:35

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has told LBC there are businesses that are not being offered enough Government support as they prepare to enter Tier 3.

London and Liverpool will enter Tier 2 of England's new covid system and Birmingham and Manchester will be in Tier 3, it has been confirmed.

The only areas to end up in Tier 1 are Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight.

Speaking of the support that will be available to businesses in Tier 3, Mr Burnham told LBC: "As I understand it, Tier 3 areas are getting no additional help compared to Tier 1 areas.

"So Tier 1 Isle of Wight gets the same level of business support as Tier 3 Greater Manchester.

"That simply cannot possibly be right and that is an act of levelling down if it's true from a Government which promised the opposite."

He added: "To be entirely fair, if your business is forced to shut there is an automatic grant. So let's say in Tier 3, pubs and restaurants where they're shut, they would get a grant.

"The additional support I'm talking about is for industries that rely on the pubs and restaurants to be open, [such as] the taxi industry, security industry [and] cleaning [and] catering [industries].

He then said: "It's those businesses that will be left without any additional support and I can't see how that can possibly be justified from a Government which claims to be levelling up.

"It will create real hardship for the people who work in those jobs in those industries the run up to Christmas..."