Thousands furloughed as firms take up wages offer

Thousands of workers were furloughed yesterday as more companies jumped on the government’s offer to pay 80pc of staff wages during the coronavirus crisis.

Ladbrokes Coral owner Gvc, bins collector Biffa, newspaper publisher Reach and Southend Airport owner Stobart group have all taken advantage of the support, joining a host of other firms which have temporarily sidelined staff to cut costs.

The Mail revealed last week that the taxpayer-funded support could soon end up costing as much as £60bn.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has urged companies to take advantage of the jobs retention scheme ‘ before making any decisions to lay people off’.

That prompted major firms including McDonald’s, Wetherspoon, greggs, Costa Coffee and Primark to furlough hundreds of thousands of staff between them. And yesterday Gvc said it would furlough 15,000 employees as part of its own cost- cutting efforts. The company’s betting shops will also benefit from business rates holidays which ministers announced to reduce pressure on High Street outlets that have been forced to close.

Reach, which owns the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, said it had furloughed nearly 1,000 or 20pc of its staff, while Stobart said it had furloughed about 750 people or half its workforce.

Housebuilder MJ gleeson said it was furloughing three quarters or 456 of its employees and Biffa said it would furlough an undisclosed number. Biffa employs 8,000 overall.

The scheme to pay 80pc of wages is not expected to be up and running until the end of April. Experts at the Centre for Economics and Business Research have predicted that as many as 6.1m private sector employees could be furloughed.

That would cost the government £30bn if they were off work for three months, or £60bn if they were off for six months, the institute for Fiscal Studies said.