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Royal Botanic Gardens Kew: Coronavirus

Answer

Defra has regular meetings with Kew Gardens about the impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak. There are significant impacts on Kew’s operations and finances, mainly as a result of having to close the Kew and Wakehurst Place sites to the public for a period during lockdown, and a staggered return to full operations is anticipated through 2020/21.

Kew has reopened to the public under a carefully planned approach and is now able to generate visitor income as a result, although at a significantly lower level than would normally be anticipated. The operational facilities are being kept under review with a view to maximising visitor access within social distancing guidelines.

Kew has taken financial mitigation measures to offset in part the loss of income, including reducing costs, postponing investment plans and use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Under optimistic scenario planning of steady growth in visitor numbers and associated income and no second lockdown or related restrictions, Kew’s in-year operating deficit would result in a 25% reduction in total income for 2020/21, which will be funded by Kew drawing down its unrestricted reserves.

We continue to work with Kew to monitor the situation and assess any future challenges.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL7403

Session

2019-21

Subjects

Finance Disease control Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Coronavirus

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk