Raise the Bar – Supporting the Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Sectors

The Cathedral Quarter BID are supporting the ‘Raise The Bar’ Campaign.

The COVID-19 national emergency is placing unprecedented pressure on all sectors across our economy. Our role is to do whatever we can to try and alleviate those pressures for the businesses we represent.  The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant (RHLG) threshold of £51,000 is too low and we join on calling on the government to expand the rateable value threshold for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses from £51,000 to any business with a rateable value up to and including £150,000, allowing further businesses the opportunity to access the £25,000 grant.

The retail, hospitality and leisure sector is vital to the UK economy and must be protected at all costs. The retail industry alone generated £394 billion worth of sales in 2019 with 306,655 units across the UK. The UK leisure sector has reached over £111 billion in sales. The UK hospitality employs over 3.2 million people, that is 11% of UK jobs, making it the third largest sector in the UK, accounting for £130 billion in revenue, 6% of all UK businesses and 5% GDP.

In total, the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors deliver a combined £635 billion to the national economy.

• What do we want you to do?

We want you to help us to promote the campaign and in turn create a nationally marketed campaign to support all of our businesses:

• Social Media

Included in the toolkit are creative assets to be used with LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Suggested posts are as follows:

• Government, it’s time to raise the £25,00 grant rateable value threshold from £51,000 to £150,00 and help the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors survive COVID-19 www.raisethebarcampaign

• We love our local pub. Do you? Help us to help it survive COVID-19 by supporting the #RaiseTheBar campaign, lifting the rateable value threshold from £51,000 to £150,000 allowing them access to £25k grants. We want them to survive – help us. Join the campaign www.raisethebarcampaign

• What do you miss most about your local restaurant? You might miss it even more if the government don’t change the rateable value threshold from £51k to £150k for retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. Join the campaign to #RaiseTheBar and allow more businesses access to a £25k grant www.raisethebarcampaign

• National Petition

There is also a national petition which we urge you all to sign. We ask all businesses to:

• Promote the petition across all platforms – social and website
• Request all members/ businesses to sign

Access the petition here.

Graphics shown below can be used for your social media. Please help us get behind this campaign and lets #RaiseTheBar!