Business owners across Keswick enjoyed a visit from their local MP this week as part of the Government’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out Scheme’.
Trudy Harrison MP, along with Cumbria Tourism toured a number of the town’s cafes, hotels and guest houses to see how they are getting on following the Government’s decision to allow them to reopen last month.
The visit, coordinated by Cumbria Tourism in a bid to celebrate and promote the Government’s Eat out to Help Out Scheme, aimed to encourage local people and visitors to back businesses and enjoy a wonderful meal at half the normal price.
The new incentive hopes to save jobs in the hospitality sector, which has suffered massively due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It's part of a wider £30billion package to help the country's finances recover after three months of lockdown as businesses navigate new Covid-19 challenges.
Trudy said: “Following an incredibly worrying time for business owners across Copeland, it is fantastic that so many of our fabulous cafes, restaurants, tearooms and pubs across Copeland have been able to reopen under the new guidelines, and are making the most of the Government’s Eat Out To Help Out Scheme, whilst helping to boost local businesses and protect jobs across our hospitality sector.
“I commend business owners’ resilience and adaptability as well as their approach to applying social distancing measures in order to ensure staff and customers remain safe. I look forward to visiting and supporting them throughout August, and encourage all my constituents to enjoy summer safely by going out and supporting their local restaurant.”
Before offering Eat Out to Help Out discount, eateries must register with the scheme at Gov.uk, which is open to all businesses that have a dine-in area.
This includes large high street chains as well as independent food outlets, which are also benefiting from a 15 per cent VAT cut.
The discount means that a meal out for one that costs £20 will be reduced to £10, but a £25 meal for one will be slashed to £15 because of the £10 cap per person.
There is no limit to the number of times you can use the discount, meaning you can benefit from half price meals on every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August.
By midnight on July 26, more than 53,000 restaurants had signed up to the scheme, according to HMRC. A total of 73,000 have now signed up.
