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The Chancellor’s Plan to Assist Businesses & Help the UK’s Economy Recovery

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The Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivered his Summer Economic Update in Parliament on 8 July 2020. The update set out a three-phase plan to secure the UK’s economic recover from COVID-19.

Phase one was a £160bn support package which included £4bn of extra funding for the country’s vital public services including NHS, paying the wages of nearly 12 million people and supporting over a million of businesses through grants, loans and rates cuts.

Phase 2 will be focused on a ‘Plan for Jobs’ and the key points from this phase are;

  • Job Retention Bonus:To help firms keep on furloughed workers, UK Employers will receive a one-off bonus of £1,000 for each furloughed employee who is still employed as at 31 January 2021.
  • Kickstart Scheme: A new £2 billion scheme will be launched to create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people across the country. Those aged 16-24, claiming Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment, will be eligible. There will be funding available for a six-month job placement covering 100% of the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week – and employers will be able to top this wage up.
  • Employment and support schemes:A total of £1.6 billion will be invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships to help people looking for a job.
  • Creating jobs: The plan will also create tens of thousands of jobs through bringing forward work on £8.8 billion of new infrastructure, decarbonisation and maintenance projects. In addition, £5.8 billion will be spent on shovel-ready construction projects to get Britain building.
  • Eat Out to Help Out:To encourage people to safely return to eating out at restaurants the Government’s new discount scheme will provide a 50% reduction for sit-down meals in cafes, restaurants and pubs across the UK from Monday to Wednesday every week throughout August 2020.
  • VAT: The rate of VAT applied on most tourism and hospitality-related activities will be cut from 20% to 5%.
  • Stamp Duty: A temporary increase to the Nil Rate Band of Residential SDLT (Stamp Duty) from £125,000 to £500,000 has been introduced until 31 March 2021.

Phase 3 will focus on rebuilding, with a Budget and Spending Review in the Autumn.

Click the link for full details of the announcement https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rishis-plan-for-jobs-will-help-britain-bounce-back

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