The hospitality industry in Scotland has been routinely required to show resolve over the last two decades.

It has dealt with the smoking ban, global financial crash and the reduction in the legal drink driving limit, finding each time a way not only to survive but adapt to the new circumstances it has found itself in.

But it has never faced a foe like the coronavirus.

Like many businesses, pubs, cafes, hotels, and restaurants have been mothballed since their closure was ordered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday March 20 to halt the spread of the deadly disease. With the exception of those which have been able to develop home delivery operations, the closure meant takings for thousands of businesses disappeared overnight, putting in jeopardy their very existence and, as a consequence, hundreds of thousands of jobs.

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Swift action has been taken by the UK and Scottish Governments to help companies survive. There has been a huge take-up of the much-needed furlough scheme, which went live on Monday, and the one-year business rates holiday was warmly received by the hospitality, leisure, and retail sectors when it was announced in the early stages of the lockdown.

Given how quickly ministers have had to respond to the unfolding pandemic, it is perhaps inevitable that some people and businesses would fall through the cracks in terms of the support offered, as a senior executive from the food and drink industry in Scotland told me this week.

But to the credit of ministers on both sides of the border, governments have reacted rapidly when discrepancies have been highlighted, for example by moving to provide support for freelancers and the self-employed.

The business community has subsequently welcomed the extension of coronavirus grants in Scotland to ensure that companies which trade from multiple properties will receive support for each of those outlets, albeit the grants for additional properties are not as generous in England and Wales.

And there was more proof of that willingness to listen and respond on Tuesday, when ministers in Scotland announced a “lifeline” support package worth £100 million for the self-employed and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This includes a £34m hardship fund for the newly self-employed, a £20m hardship fund for the creative, tourism and hospitality sectors and a £45m Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund. The latter will be managed by enterprise agencies for what ministers defined as “vulnerable” SMEs which it said are “vital to the local or national economic foundations of Scotland”.

For tourism and hospitality, companies with up to 50 employees, which do not receive business rates relief, have been promised “rapid access” to hardship grants of £3,000, or larger grants of up to £25,000 “where it can be demonstrated support is needed”.

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This last point will be scrutinised closely by groups representing the wider hospitality sector, which are now asking for more precise detail on who will qualify for this additional support.

As revealed in The Herald, bar, hotel, and restaurant owners have in recent days expressed fury that huge swathes of their industry have until now been denied vital grants to help them survive the crisis.

That anger has focused on the decision by ministers to exclude businesses with a rateable value of more than £51,000 from grants, which according to the industry means that thousands of businesses will miss out.

And this is largely a consequence of the method used by assessors to calculate rateable values for hospitality outlets, which has traditionally meant they are much higher than in other sectors.

A publicans and restaurateurs have been pointing out both in the pages of The Herald and on social media, it simply does not follow that outlets with a property rateable value of greater than £51,000 are big businesses. Nor does it mean their owners have deeper pockets or are any more able to ensure their outlet survives.

In many cases, businesses are effectively being penalised for their location.

As restaurateur Alan Tomkins, owner of Urban Bar & Brasseries and Vroni’s Wine Bar, told me: “To be fair to the government, they came out of the starting blocks really quickly to help everybody, and it is always difficult to cover all the bases, but if you are unfortunate enough to be in the highest-rated city in the country, in the city centre, in the licensed trade, there is a good chance your rateable value is going to be above the threshold.”

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But this is not a city-only problem for the industry. The huge number of businesses caught in this invidious situation around Scotland was underlined by trade body UK Hospitality.

Willie Macleod, the organisation’s executive director in Scotland, estimates that around 950 hotels out of a total of 2,400 and 650 pubs from a total 2,500 in Scotland have a rateable value in excess of £51,000.

Mr Macleod, who is pressing the Scottish and UK Governments for a fundamental review of the rating system as it affects the hospitality trade, said: “These are not large businesses, and their continued ability to operate at the heart of every community, employ significant numbers of people and contribute to government revenues, will be an important factor in economic recovery.”

For licensed trade operators such as Rodney Taylor, owner of Drury Street Bar & Kitchen in Glasgow, a grant of £25,000 could be enough to ensure his business gets to the other side of this crisis.

“I don’t know why they think we are big businesses, because we are not,” he said.

Even looking beyond the crisis is proving to be difficult for the industry at this point. Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said this week that “areas of hospitality” will be “among the last” to re-open as lockdown measures are eventually eased, leading to speculation about what this will mean in practice. Which types of outlet will be allowed to open first? Will they initially have to operate with reduced capacity and observe social distancing measures?

With insiders saying it will take months to get back up to full operational capacity, some fear it could be well into 2021 before normal trading resumes.

Industry figures acknowledge the extraordinary measures governments have taken to protect incomes and support businesses. It is to be hoped ministers continue to listen and respond to the rapidly changing situation.

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