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Coronavirus: Government under fire for cheap loans to big firms
Jun 5, 2020
The government has been criticised for handing out more than £16bn in cheap loans to well-known firms such as John Lewis and Tottenham Hotspur.
Of that, £1bn was lent to a German chemicals giant, while the UK's biggest airlines have borrowed almost £2bn.
But senior Labour MP Margaret Hodge has called the loans "a flagrant abuse of public money".
In response, the Treasury said the loan scheme was helping to protect hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The Bank of England's Corporate Covid Financing Facility (CCFF) was set up to help large firms with a big impact on the UK economy through the crisis. It is one of a number of schemes designed to lend money to businesses affected by the pandemic.
The list of 53 firms that have used the facility includes some household names such as M&S, Asos and Nissan.
Airlines Ryanair and EasyJet each borrowed £600m, while British Airways owner IAG and Wizz Air were lent £300m each.
That has prompted complaints from environmental campaigners who say the money should have been lent with conditions attached.
Image copyright Getty Images
"Airlines have been given exactly what the chancellor, the prime minister, economists and the public said they should not be given - billions in cheap and easy loans to keep them polluting, without any commitments to reduce their emissions or even keep their workers on the payroll," said Fiona Nicholls from Greenpeace.
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