UK, particularly those in the hospitality sector, and called for immediate action to be taken to support them

Nicholls highlighted that many hospitality businesses are worried about collapsing due to high energy bills and a lack of cash flow.

The overwhelming majority of UK Hospitality members are concerned about their energy bills, with almost a third of members worried about collapsing in the next year.

The CEO of UK Hospitality noted that participating banks are not allowed to extend CBILS repayment terms unless it's in exceptional circumstances.

This means that a company must declare itself 'severely compromised', which negatively impacts its credit rating.

Nicholls called for the business secretary to work with the BBB to draw up a revised set of conditions for the extension of CBILS loans with a presumption in favour of extension for businesses that have been adversely affected by the energy crisis.

This should have no impact on a business's credit rating as it would be considered a standard refinancing.

Alongside this, Nicholls urged the business secretary to advise HMRC to take a more lenient approach to Time To Pay (TTP).

Many fully viable businesses are being refused TTP despite documenting their cashflow and the short-term nature of their liquidity squeeze.

The warning from UK Hospitality underlines the squeeze that many businesses are dealing with despite recent falls in wholesale gas prices and the consequent declines that households are seeing on their domestic energy bills.

Recently, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, facilitated support to mortgage customers through a new charter hammered out with the banking industry.

Nicholls called for a further measure to support business at this time would be to extend the guidance the chancellor gave to banks in relation to mortgages, with no fault payment delays, to business customers.

Nicholls emphasized that these issues are critical to the survival of thousands of businesses in the