Yahoo Finance Pubs and hotels join business push to help Ukrainian refugees
Britain’s pubs, hotels and restaurants are gearing up to help Ukrainian refugees as businesses scramble to support those fleeing the Russian invasion.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, said she has been “inundated with offers of help and support” from hotels with spare rooms and restaurants looking to provide food parcels.
Some of Britain’s biggest businesses are in talks with Downing Street about arranging jobs and accommodation for refugees.
A consortium of dozens of businesses including Marks & Spencer say they have 10,000 jobs available for the women and children fleeing the conflict.
They have been holding talks over recent days and will meet with ministers on Monday, the Sunday Times first reported.
Meanwhile, there is growing support from business groups for employers to be offered tax breaks or red tape exemptions if they hire refugees.
Michael Gove, the Housing and Communities Secretary, said on Sunday that “tens of thousands” of refugees would begin arriving in the UK under a sponsorship scheme.
Households will be paid £350 a month to host refugees under the scheme, which has been launched following criticism of the Home Office’s response to the crisis.
The refugees minister, Richard Harrington, who works across Mr Gove’s department and the Home Office, will on Monday meet with entrepreneur Emma Sinclair, who is leading the coalition of companies wanting to help out with the scheme.
More businesses are understood to be interested in helping, with offers of jobs or to assist in other ways. Tesco and Vodafone have already announced they will make jobs available in their European operations.
The CBI said many companies are “keen to assist further” in finding jobs for people fleeing the conflict.
Ms Nicholls said hospitality operators could “kill two birds with one stone” as many roles in the sector come with accommodation.
The arrival of people seeking temporary work could also help relieve severe staffing shortages, she added. “If we can provide meaningful jobs to support them while they're here, we would be very happy to do so.”
Morrisons has contacted the Home Office to support to Ukrainians arriving in the UK.
A spokesman for the supermarket said: “Morrisons will welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms … we believe we could find good roles for many hundreds of men and women.”
Marks & Spencer also confirmed it is in contact with officials about the details of support.
"We are absolutely committed to supporting Ukrainian refugees, through both the humanitarian response underway with our charity partners and with jobs,” a spokesman said.
Sainsburys said it was looking at how to provide support in a “meaningful way”, adding it “would be open to providing jobs as part of this”.
The Government said the local sponsorship scheme will match charities, businesses and individuals with refugees who do not have family in the UK.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We will keep our support under constant review.”
