News 9th July
What the chancellor is offering for £30 billion:
- Employers receive £1 thousand if they take back staff from furlough and keep until January
*VAT is cut to 5% for hotels and restaurants; pubs for non-alcohol - If you buy a house you have to pay stamp duty but now you don’t if the house is less than £500 thousand
- There are grants to houses to make better insulation and payment to landlords who fix up rented houses
- If you eat in a restaurant or pub in August from Monday to Wednesday, you can get £10 off per person on food and non alcohol
- Different grants to pay for young people as apprentices or to go to study and also help to find jobs
- There are grants for local authorities (public bodies) and for social housing to make them energy efficient
People in restaurants say it is a help for them.
Labour Party says OK but not sure it will be enough to stop a huge number of people losing their jobs in the next three months. The Union leaders say that when furlough funding stops in October there will be huge job losses. The air and travel people and care centre staff say they have been ignored – nothing given to them. Leicester which has lockdown, say they are not getting any extra help from the Government.
Brexit row, this time inside UK Government as the Trade Secretary says Boris plans for Northern Ireland trade will create smuggling and possibly be challenged by the World Trade Organisation. Government was not planning to do checks like the EU require because the systems will not be ready in time but Tax people will charge for goods going from Northern Ireland to UK. Complicated chaos.