Sunak buys time but crisis is far from over

Perhaps Carole King’s ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ elevator music at the Treasury, For it appears Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s drew heavily from the lyrics of the 1971 classic when drawing up his furlough-replacing Jobs Support Scheme.

The new package is designed to answer the call from millions of workers worried about whether new financial support would be forthcoming from the government.

And now winter will be covered after a spring, summer and autumn that has seen the chancellor run up a bill in the tens of billions to keep the economy from flatlining.

Inevitable though the new measures were given the resurgence of Covid in recent weeks, they are welcome.

But the government’s helping hand on this occasion is significantly less generous than what it was under furlough.

The reality is that part-time workers in what are deemed to be ‘viable’ jobs will receive less in their hand at the end of the month, while their employers will face a larger bill than is currently the case.

And there is also very little comfort for the self-employed, many of whom have found the past months nigh on impossible to navigate.

The chancellor has been open about the fact that not every job, nor business, will survive this crisis. Indeed, the new support scheme actively reflects that position.

Prior to Covid there was a signficant school of thought that the UK was behind the curve in embracing the opportunities posed by advances in areas such as digital technology and renewables. The urgency has only grown.

Scottish Chambers of Commerce yesterday said the new support outlined bythe chancellor could only ever be a sticking plaster to stem the immediate loss of jobs.

Its vision instead is a major retraining and upskilling programme coupled with an investment blueprint to create the jobs of the future.

Locally, the Tay Cities Deal, which is finally expected to be signed off next month, will be crucial.

The economy is sick right now and needs a helping hand. But, long-term, it must stand on its own two feet.

With his new scheme, the chancellor has bought some time. But he – and others in power elsewhere – should be under no illusion that there is still much work to be done. is the