Furlough scheme is extended to October

CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak has announced a four-month extension to the furlough scheme under which the UK Government subsidises the wages of workers temporarily laid off due to the coronavirus.

He told the House of Commons yesterday that 7.5 million people had been put on furlough across one million businesses that might have had to otherwise close, potentially for good.

The scheme, which pays 80% of a worker’s salary up to a £2,500 monthly cap, will remain unchanged until the end of July and then continue with employers expected to start footing some of the multi-billion pound bill. Staff will continue to be paid 80% of their salaries.

The extension – which came as new figures revealed that Wales’ economy is losing £79m in output a day during to the pandemic – has been welcomed by business leaders.

Ian Price, director of CBI Wales, said it would avoid a “June cliffedge”, adding: “The greater the number of good businesses saved now, the easier it will be for the economy to recover.”

Following new figures on care home deaths released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK death toll from Covid-19 rose to just over 40,000, while in Wales it rose to 1,641.

And Wales diverged from the rest of the UK on its advice about the wearing of face masks.

Health Minister Vaughan Gething said yesterday that the Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Frank Atherton, “does not recommend that everyone should wear face masks or coverings”.

“He believes this should be a matter of personal choice,” Mr Gething said.