Speaking on SKY News this morning, Rishi Sunak has hinted that the furlough scheme could be extended when he announces the budget on Wednesday.
The scheme, which pays up to 80% of salaries to those who cannot work because of Covid-19 restrictions was used by employers to help pay 4.7 million workers in January.
Asked by Sophy Ridge on Sky News if there would be an extension of the furlough scheme, the chancellor said he would “do whatever it took” to ensure the government are supporting workers.
“I said at the beginning of this crisis that I would do whatever it took to protect people, families and businesses through this crisis and I remain completely committed to that. The PM in the roadmap set out a path for us to recover and reopen and I want to support people and businesses along that path.
“I’m not going to comment on specific policies but I want to make sure people realise that we are going to be there to support them and if you look at our track record we went big, we went early and there’s more to come next week,” he said.
When asked about the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which saw over 100million meals claimed in August 202 and cost a total of £522m, Mr Sunak indicated that the South West was one of the biggest users of the scheme yet didn’t see much of a spike in cases at the time.
“Areas where Eat Out to Help Out was used the most, for example in the south-west, were the slowest to see any rise and in fact had very low infection rates. And almost all other major countries have had rises over the autumn and winter and they didn’t have Eat Out to Help Out so I think it’s a bit odd to ascribe causality in that way,” he said.
He also refused to say whether the scheme would be reintroduced when national restrictions are lifted.
Throughout Swindon 164 restaurants joined up to the government scheme with a total of 134,000 meals claimed, with £664,000 in discounts provided – resulting in an average meal discount of £4.94.
