Do your duty and return furlough cash

Pay it back if you can, firms urged

Cash-rich companies that bounce back quickly from the coronavirus crisis have been urged to join the ‘national effort’ to rebuild Britain by returning furlough money to taxpayers.

With Boris Johnson promising a building blitz to stave off a severe recession, two of the UK’s most influential business lobby groups, and the chair of the Parliamentary Business committee, have called on profitable firms to do their bit to get Britain back on track.

A smattering of firms, including housebuilders taylor Wimpey and redrow, Ikea, outsourcer Bunzl and Games Workshop, have already vowed to hand back the money they claimed after furloughing staff. Smart Metering Systems joined them this week.

With a growing list of big name firms laying off thousands of staff, Darren Jones, Labour MP and chairman of the commons Business energy and Industrial Strategy Committee appealed to the Government to extend its Job retention Scheme beyond October.

But he said companies in a strong financial position ‘should recognise the wider societal role they play’ and pay back the money if they can afford to.

Jones (pictured) said: ‘We will continue to have very significant demand for government support as we recover from the pandemic and I’d hope that companies which realise they didn’t need furlough payments, for example, return these funds to the treasury.’ More than a million firms have claimed £25.5bn so far in wage subsidies from the Job retention Scheme on behalf of 9.3m furloughed workers. the lifeline, which is expected to cost £60bn by the time the scheme is wound up in October, was launched by Chancellor rishi Sunak to prevent mass unemployment. It pays 80pc of wages up to £2,500 a month. edwin Morgan, director of policy at the Institute of Directors said: ‘Government support has rightly been provided to help companies and workers through these desperate times, and it will only be the rare business that is able to return funds. for those who can, it would clearly send a positive message.’