With new national lockdown restrictions in place, the Chancellor has extended the furlough scheme until the end of March for all parts of the United Kingdom. Employees will receive 80 per cent of their current salary for hours not worked, up to £2,500 a month. Businesses will have the flexibility to bring furloughed employees back to work on a part time basis or furlough them full-time. For those who have recently been made redundant (since 23 September), they can be rehired and furloughed by their employer.
Support to the self-employed will increase from 40 per cent of trading profits to 80 per cent for November, December and January. These grants are calculated over three months, meaning the maximum grant will increase to £7,500. There will be a further grant to follow covering February to April.
In addition to these job measures, the government has announced the following:
- Businesses that are forced to close due to restrictions will receive grants of up to £3,000 per month, which will benefit over 600,000 business premises
- Local authorities in England will also receive one off funding of £1.1 billion to support businesses which are not forced to close but are facing reduced demand due to the new national restrictions.
- Mortgage payment holidays will continue to be available for homeowners. These were due to end on 31 October, but borrowers who have been impacted by coronavirus and have not yet had a mortgage payment holiday will be entitled to a six month holiday, and those that have already started a mortgage payment holiday will be able to top up to six months without this being recorded on their credit file
- Payment holidays will continue to be available for consumer credit products such as personal loans and car finance. As with mortgages, borrowers impacted by coronavirus who have not yet taken a payment holiday on that product can ask for one of up to 6 months and those that currently have a payment holiday will be eligible to top up to six months without this being recorded on their credit file
- Up to £500 million will be provided to local councils for local public health initiatives, such as additional contact tracing, testing for hard-to-reach groups and communications
- Over £32 million is being given to local authorities to provide support to Clinically Extremely Vulnerable people who need it. This includes helping people to access food and meeting other support needs to enable them to stay at home as much as possible for the 28-day period that the restrictive advice is in force. Funding is weighted by the number of those Clinically Extremely Vulnerable who live within the local authority boundaries
Richard said: "This lockdown will create additional pressure on businesses large and small and their employees.
"While I would have preferred that businesses and shops across North East Bedfordshire could have continued to trade as normal, I do think this initiative by the Chancellor is, in the circumstances, appropriate and well judged."
