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Rishi Sunak will announce an extension of the business loan plans and an employment support package to replace the government leave plan, which will end next month.
The chancellor will present new measures in a statement to parliament on Thursday, a day after he scrapped plans for a fall budget in order to focus on the immediate economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Thursday morning that financial support to replace the license scheme had been in place since the summer.
When asked why the chancellor had waited until almost October to announce the measures, Hancock said: “We have said at all times that unfortunately we cannot protect all jobs and all businesses.
“But I think as of the timing of this, we have been working on the winter plan for the economy and the options should cases start to increase again from the summer and with the prime minister having set the next steps in terms. on the health side on Tuesday, now the chancellor will come to the House today, two days later, to establish the economic package for the winter plan that accompanies it.
Eliminating the planned fall budget on Wednesday, Sunak said he would announce the details of a “winter economic plan” that “will continue to protect jobs” as Britain enters a new phase of the pandemic.
The Guardian revealed Tuesday that one of the options Sunak is considering to replace the leave scheme is a package of wage subsidies for employees doing part-time jobs like those already operating in Germany. Sunak, however, will say that his plans are tailor-made to meet current UK needs rather than a direct relocation from another country.
It comes as pressure mounts on the chancellor to act after Boris Johnson announced new restrictions on social and business life earlier this week.
“Nobody wanted to be in this situation, but we have to respond,” said a Treasury source. “The Chancellor has shown that he has been creative in the past and we hope that people will trust us to continue in that line. Giving people and companies peace of mind the help they need to overcome this is the most important thing to him. “
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Against a backdrop of increasing job losses and worsening growth prospects, business groups, Labor and unions said Sunak urgently needed to step back to terminate the permit or at least replace the program. employment with a successor plan.
Labor leader Keir Starmer said the country needed a plan B for the economy and that he had offered to help Johnson put one together, adding: “It doesn’t make sense to introduce new restrictions while removing support for jobs and businesses ”.
A significant number of senior Conservative MPs have also lobbied the chancellor for additional business support, including culture selection committee chair Julian Knight and former sports minister Tracey Crouch.
