Recommendation 20

We asked the Department whether it would adopt a more bespoke, sector-based approach to supporting businesses, given some sectors and industries have said they are not receiving the support they need. The Department told us that in cases of very large companies of national strategic significance, it would discuss those with the Treasury. However, it said that it believed that many of those sectors would be able to access the existing schemes of the British Business Bank and the Bank of England.50 Government has been slow to engage and provide targeted support for sectors such as the steel, aviation, aerospace and automotive industries. For example, UK Steel waited 10 weeks for support and was unable to get it, whereas competitor countries such as France and Germany were able to distribute funds in 10 days.51 The Department told us about five in-depth economic recovery discussions it held with 20 or 30 businesses and academics. However, we were concerned that those business roundtables were not what businesses were expecting and the Department had not published a list of businesses invited to the roundtables, on what basis they were invited or who attended.52 On 15 June, the Department published a list of attendees at the roundtables and the topics discussed.53 44 Q 23 45 C&AG’s Report, para 2.12 46 Q 105 47 C&AG’s Report, para 2.12 48 C&AG’s, Figure 6 49 Q 105 50 Q 107 51 Q 105 52 Qq 110–113 53 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/business-secretary-leads-economic-recovery-roundtables 16 Whole of Government Response to COVID-19 Local government funding