Rishi Sunak dishing up recovery but is there a sting in tail?
I Tcan’t be easy being a Conservative chancellor of the Exchequer, the UK’S chief bean counter, especially in these dark, dystopian, and debt-ridden times. Not when so many millions of people’s lives and livelihoods are so perilously close to the edge of the abyss, and who rightly expect in times of national crisis, that their government, their chancellor, puts his neck on the line, head above the parapet and hands into the deep pockets of the treasury in order to bail them out.
A job made all the harder when there are hardly any beans in the bank left to count and against all your Tory gut instinct you are forced to borrow hundreds of billion to keep the UK afloat during and beyond this crisis.
An eye-watering £407 billion, the highest peacetime borrowing figures since the end of the Second World War and, even more startling, according to estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility, our national debt is hurtling towards a back-breaking £2.8 trillion by the end of 2026.
Yet in Rishi Sunak we might now actually have a real chancellor, instead of a spineless chancer, one who is not only up for the challenge, but since he was parachuted in as an unknown backbencher to the hot seat of Number 11 last February, a month before this deadly pandemic gripped the country, has shown real backbone and leadership, and with fleet of foot danced around his political opponents. At almost every juncture during this crisis he has silenced many of his critics with some timely fiscal interventions. Which importantly in most cases, not all, have provided the financial support, the emergency grants, loans, and job security that was so desperately needed.
His Eat Out to Help Out scheme last autumn was the stuff of genius and proved to be a lifesaver for many of the 50,000 struggling restaurants, pubs and cafes who took part in this half-price initiative, which saw businesses
With businesses having to pay employee contributions of 10% in July then 20% during August and September, will this prove to be the final straw?
claim back a staggering £849 million for 160 million meals. My favourite was the Delishy Rishi Dishi Burger that I bought in the Harrogate Hilton for a tenner.
His VAT cut for hospitality and tourism, which along with a duty freeze on alcohol and fuel, and support for the self-employed which have all been extended, have been welcomed by sectors torn to shreds by the impact of Covid but it was the announcement of the extension of furlough that brought the most relief for many businesses, no more so than my own.
The £14bn a month job retention scheme, which pays 80% of employees’ wages, brought in last March, has protected the jobs of more than 11 million people, and was due to close at the end of April, has thankfully been extended to the end of September. But with businesses also having to pay employee contributions of 10% in July then 20% during August and September, will this prove to be the final straw?
Paul Waterson, of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, points out: “It’s a game of two halves for the licensed trade and hospitality industry. Good news in the short term but not such a sunny longer-term outlook although it does buy us a bit of time. The furlough extension is, of course, to be welcomed but the costs incurred after employers are asked to contribute 10% in July then 20% in August and September may be prohibitive for some at a time when many are struggling to survive.”
Indeed, is this extension, from our popular pint-sized, media-savvy Brand Rishi a glass half full or a glass half empty?
Well, we can only hope that it proves to be the former and that the Scottish Government now step in with a package of emergency funding measures to support and protect Scotland’s multi-billion pound night time economy and licence trade sector which they have excluded from any roadmap to recovery and all but closed down.