It’s time to get creative to protect the economy
THE Prime Minister is back in action, testing has been ramped up drastically and we’ll finally see the Government’s “road map” out of lockdown this week.
But despite glimmers of good news, it’s near impossible to imagine a time after coronavirus.
We could be living with the virus for months, or years depending on the development of treatments and vaccines.
And the cost of all this will have long-lasting implications.
The Treasury thought its central emergency package, the furloughing scheme, would be taken up by roughly 10 per cent of businesses.
But the British Chamber of Commerce says more than 70 per cent have furloughed some, if not all, of their workforce.
The Treasury plans to borrow £180billion to get us through the next three months alone.
There’s no way of knowing the total cost of our coronavirus strategy yet, but it will be
‘We will need robust debate’
astronomical. So now is the time to get creative.we’re in uncharted territory and new financial worries will require new policy answers. If we’re lucky, this will be a one-off spending spree that was necessary to keep business and workers afloat.
This is one reason why it’s so important to balance the books in the good times – so the Government has room to spend when crisis strikes.
Assuming we’re not racking up a budget deficit indefinitely, there should be time to tackle new debt in a steady manner.
There may be a case for raising certain taxes, with a plan to lower them again soon.with all this red tape suspended to deal with the virus, this could be the time to slash it altogether and go for a pro-growth agenda.
But we must be cautious of radical policies that will do more harm than good. Prolonged government interference in the economy will stifle the boom so desperately needed when the economy awakes.
We’re approaching a time for big thinking, robust debate. By the time we weed through good and bad policy ideas, it might just be time to implement them.