200K JOBS GO IN COVID BLOODBATH
Scale of hit to economy revealed as Sunak is urged: Keep UK working
RISHI Sunak faces a plea to keep Britain in work as the scale of the jobs bloodbath already under way is revealed today.
Almost 200,000 workers at household-name companies have been laid off since the start of lockdown, an analysis by the Daily Mail has found.
The Chancellor was told last night that his focus needs to be on ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ in his mini-Budget on Wednesday.
Senior figures warned that the job losses so far will be just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ unless dramatic action is taken. Major layoffs have hit sectors such as retail, travel, hospitality and manufacturing, all of which have been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic.
In just the past week alone, firms including Harrods, John Lewis, Cafe Rouge and Topshop- owner Arcadia have all wielded the axe, leaving more than 14,000 staff without a job. But data collated by the Daily Mail shows that 59 household-name companies have cut more than 195,000 roles since lockdown began in March.
Some of the biggest have been at Heathrow Airport, which has laid off 25,000 staff, British Airways, which is axing 12,000, and RollsRoyce, which is cutting 9,000 jobs.
Thousands of smaller companies have also been reducing their staff. A total of 2.8million are now claiming Jobseekers Allowance or Universal Credit while searching for a job, according to official data.
Last night Lucy Powell, Labour’s business spokesman, said: ‘These job losses are devastating for the people involved and for the economy. We fear they are just the tip of the iceberg. Hospitality and high streets have been battered by this crisis, with many businesses struggling to survive. We need a backto-work Budget with a laser-like focus on jobs, jobs, jobs.’
Labour is calling for a £1.7billion hospitality and high streets ‘fightback fund’ to help protect jobs.
Former Conservative chancellor Lord Lamont called for employers to be given a holiday on National Insurance payments, as he warned that jobs must be ‘absolutely the key priority’ for Mr Sunak.
The Tory grandee, who held the post during the 1992 Black Wednesday crisis, said: ‘He has acted boldly and quickly, but the difficult part is yet to come.’
Lord Lamont, who was speaking on the Blue Collar Conversations podcast, said: ‘I would perhaps have a holiday for employers’ National Insurance for a period of time. If you cut the cost of employing people that will be the best way to retain jobs. Firms are going out of business not through any fault of their own.’
Meanwhile, a group of former economic advisers to five Tory prime ministers or chancellors suggested that while the focus should be on ‘jobs jobs jobs’, debt must also be falling by 2024.
They set out a plan for the UK’s recovery from coronavirus that includes a national debt restructuring agency and an unprecedented skills and jobs package.
The report, written by Mats Perswill son, Adam Memon, Raoul Ruparel, Tim Pitt, Will Tanner and Neil O’Brien for think-tank Onward, also calls for £ 30billion to be invested in struggling firms.
The pace of cuts is picking up as the Government’s furlough scheme, which has been used by 1.1million employers to protect 9.3million workers, draws to a close.
Companies have already used the scheme to pay £25.5billion of their employees’ wages. Thousands who have been let go had originally been furloughed, leading to fears that millions more furloughed workers never return to their job as Mr Sunak gradually withdraws the wage support.
A survey today suggests that 44 per cent of businesses participating in the furlough scheme believe they will have to let at least some of their staff go when it ends.
The poll of 500 companies, conducted by Opinium on behalf of the think-tank Bright Blue, found that 65 per cent medium sized firms with between 50 and 249 workers, said they expect to make redundancies.
A group of 120 industry leaders in the hospitality sector have written to Boris Johnson, calling for VAT to be cut temporarily from 20 per cent to 5 per cent to encourage consumers to spend.
The group, coordinated by industry body UK Hospitality, also wants the Government to defer July tax payments for businesses such as hotels and restaurants, hand out targeted grants, and extend the business rates holiday.
The Office for Budget Responsibility, the Government’s watchdog, predicted in April that around 3.4million people, or one in ten of the working age population, would be unemployed by the end of June.
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‘Just the tip of the iceberg’ ‘The difficult part is yet to come’