5. To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it is offering SMEs in light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown. (S5O-04513)

We have funded over 89,000 grants, exceeding £998 million, through the small business, and retail, hospitality and leisure support grants. That is in addition to grants of £157 million to 4,023 small and medium-sized enterprises and 5,602 self-employed people, through our hardship and pivotal enterprise resilience funds.

That is on top of 1.6 per cent rates relief for all non-domestic properties and 100 per cent rates relief for properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure, airports, and news-publishing sectors.

We are also providing a £2 million resilience and recovery fund for towns and business improvement districts, and a £100 million emergency loan fund for SME house builders that are affected by temporary site closures.

In city centres, in Glasgow in particular, small cafes and takeaways continue to suffer because offices are not yet open. They have no footfall. I have spoken to a number of business owners, who tell me that they might not survive Covid-19 and the lockdown.

Will the Cabinet secretary look at their cases? She has mentioned the funding that is available. Can additional support be provided to ease the financial pressures on those businesses and, in some cases, to ensure their survival?

There is an issue for hospitality in general. We have concerns about support for that area. Members heard from the Minister about the proposals that we have for the sector, and about our concern that the UK Government should extend the furlough scheme to that sector, in particular.

Sandra White has raised a point about city centres and businesses that rely on offices returning to work. People are aware that our decisions about the route map out of the pandemic are based on four harms. We must consider the whole situation; there is an impact on transport, for example. One of the most important factors in respect of offices getting back to work is the return to school, as has been seen in recent weeks. We must look at all such factors.

I have commissioned work on how offices might be able to get back in a way that makes sense for everybody; many businesses are saying that they will not come back at 100 per cent capacity. It is important to consider how we can do that and do it well, not only for the safety of office workers but, as Sandra White said, because of the money that they spend in city centres.

I have a meeting later today with Scottish Chambers of Commerce, in which we will discuss that matter and how we can work with businesses to ensure that we have sensible and practical ways to help them to return to their offices, and to support the hospitality and retail businesses that depend on people coming back into city centres.