UK Coronavirus Relief Scheme Benefits Airlines and Carmakers

Despite ministers assuring that a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic would be prioritised, airlines and carmakers have received billions from the government’s relief schemes.

Last week it was revealed that 53 companies, including British Airways, Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizz Air were recipients of funds from the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility. A total of £1.8bn has been lent to just these four airlines up until now.

Car manufacturers Toyota, Nissan and Honda have borrowed over £1bn between them, along with Rolls-Royce which has taken a bailout of £300m. Oilfield services company, Baker Hughes, has taken £600m, with Schlumberger taking a further £150m.

Campaigners have urged the government to attach new conditions to the aid it is providing, which is estimated to reach over £67bn.

“In return for assistance on such generous terms, we the public can demand better,” said the executive director of the pressure group Positive Money, Fran Boait. “We really need to ask whether we should be propping up climate criminals and bad bosses with public money. The government must consider whether conditions which would stop firms laying off workers, avoiding tax and fuelling the climate crisis should be applied to these bailouts.”

Climate campaigner at Greenpeace UK, Fiona Nicholls, said the government was reneging on its promise to prioritise a green recovery from the pandemic, and was letting the public down.

“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,” Nicholls said.

Jo Furtado, of the Green Alliance thinktank, said: “The government has rightly supported companies through the pandemic to protect jobs and livelihoods, but we should now expect these companies to contribute more to addressing the climate and nature crisis.”

“This could be through more investment in green innovation or by reducing emissions to help us reach net zero,” Furtado added.

Boait further warned of repeating past mistakes from over a decade ago: “We can’t repeat the mistakes of 2008, where the banks got bailed out with no strings attached and the public got sold out. We need to use every opportunity to ensure the recovery from this crisis builds a fairer and greener society.”

The business secretary and COP26 president, Alok Sharma, said: “The way we rebuild our economies post Covid-19 will have a profound impact on our planet. We have the opportunity to build back better by investing in a clean, resilient recovery.”