On Thursday Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled his “Winter Economy Plan” in the House of Commons, to protect jobs and help businesses.
Here are ten key announcements Sunak made:
- A new Jobs Support Scheme which will replace furlough, will be launched for employees working at least a third of their normal hours, who are being paid for that as normal.
- The government and employers will jointly increase their wages to cover two-thirds of their lost pay and the employees will keep their job
- All small and medium-sized businesses are eligible, but larger firms will have to prove their turnover has fallen during the crisis. Employers can use it even if they have not previous used the furlough scheme it replaces
- The scheme will run for six months from November
- Businesses will not able to issue redundancy notice on staff if they use this scheme
- The existing grant for self-employed people is being extended on similar terms to the Jobs Support Scheme
- A “pay as you grow” scheme was announced for businesses, enabling them to extend their bounce back loans from six to 10-years, and reduce their payments
- Businesses can also move to interest-only payments or suspend repayments for six months “for anyone in trouble,” whilst company credit ratings will be unaffected
- The temporary reduction of VAT from 20% to 5% for hospitality and tourism sectors will remain in place until 31 March 2021
- The government guarantee on Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans will be extended to 10-years and a new successor loan guarantee programme will be announced in January
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