Chancellor Rishi Sunak will later today provide a “significant” rescue package for businesses struggling to cope with the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
The Chancellor, who last week unveiled a radical Budget packed with bold spending promises, is now expected to set out assistance for pubs, restaurants and other public spaces that people were yesterday told by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to avoid.
Mr Sunak will appear alongside Mr Johnson at the government’s second daily coronavirus news conference in Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon, when he may announce more new measures.
Only last week, Mr Sunak revealed a £12bn package to help businesses of all sizes fight the worldwide coronavirus outbreak.
But he is today expected to go further, and businesses and political leaders have been laying out what they want the Chancellor to announce.
The Campaign for Real Ale said Mr Johnson’s advice would cause many pubs “to close and never reopen”, and demanded business rate relief, cover for staff salaries and more.
Experts at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) told MPs the Chancellor’s £12 billion support announced to tackle Covid-19 in the spring Budget was a helpful “down-payment”, but that more was needed and fast.
They said Britain was facing a wartime scenario and the Government must spend and “not be squeamish” about debt levels.
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The Government could consider paying energy bills for struggling households, replacing lost revenues for firms large and small and reimbursing struggling companies for staff wage bills among a raft of emergency support suggested by the OBR.
Bosses at the independent forecaster also suggested the Government should act as an insurer of last resort as the insurance sector is expected to struggle to meet payments from firms and individuals.
Robert Chote, chairman of the OBR, told a Treasury Select Committee hearing: “This is not the time to be squeamish about one-off additions to public sector debt.
“It’s more like a wartime situation – that this is money well spent. The priority is not to worry about dotting the Is and crossing the Ts of fiscal rules but to do what is necessary for the economy and the public.”
Political figures including Liverpool City Mayor Joe Anderson have called on the government to announce an “immediate action plan for solid, sustainable support for businesses”.
Shadow health and social care secretary Jonathan Ashworth called on ministers to “bring forward a substantial package of financial support”, while shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “We need unequivocal statement from Chancellor today that people’s incomes will be protected businesses will be fully supported to prevent any going out of business as result of the virus, and it has to be on a scale sufficient to meet this crisis.
“No small measures. Get it right.”
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And earlier today, ex-Treasury Minister Jim O’Neill told BBC Radio 4 that the Chancellor must today promise to “compensate all businesses and all income earners”.
Describing last week’s Budget as a “replica” of the response during the 2008 financial crash, he said: ““This is, as we all we are now starting to learn, an entirely different crisis
“Virtually none of those things, particularly cutting interest rates, are going to have the slightest bit of impact.
“You need to give them some kind of income transfer, whether it be business or individuals, in order to get them at least through two months of these tough measures.
“If we don’t do that, we are not going to be able to stop hundreds of thousands of people being laid off and businesses going bust all over the developed world.”