I welcome the announcement today that Southampton Airport will not have to pay business rates this year and that a new testing and quarantine system will be introduced, cutting the quarantine periods from 14 days to 5 days with a negative test. The Government will offer Southampton Airport up to £8m in grant funding to pay for its business rate costs.
Last week I was making this argument to Ministers in Parliament and I am pleased that the Government has listened and acted.
This will provide vital support for the travel industry and it will also help protect jobs for all those people working at Southampton Airport and in the travel sector more widely.
The new testing and quarantine rules will come into place on 15 December and passengers returning to England from countries not featured on the travel corridor list (the approved list) will have the option to take a test after five days of self-isolation. If the passenger has a negative test result, it will release them from the need to isolate (down from 14 days blanket quarantine currently).
