Too many workers are still falling through cracks in the Covid rescue package, a former cabinet minister warned today as he called for the lockdown to be eased “as quickly as possible”.
Mel Stride, chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, also stressed that Britain may struggle to bounce back with a V-shaped recovery.
He praised Chancellor Rishi Sunak for a “bold” and “nimble” response to the crisis to try to avoid millions being left jobless and tens of thousands of firms going bust. However, writing in the Evening Standard, former Commons leader Mr Stride said: “There are still people and businesses falling through the cracks.”
He highlighted three groups still in need of more support:
- Workers who had just started jobs who still do not qualify for the furlough scheme despite the employment cut-off date being adjusted.
- Company directors who often pay themselves a relatively small salary and take dividend payments from profits. They do not have these dividends considered when being assessed for the furlough grant.
- Firms which were still waiting too long for desperately needed loans.
Mr Stride said Mr Sunak had responded to the economic crisis with packages of loans, grants, furlough schemes and guarantees which were “introduced at pace”. The Government had also responded to warnings from the committee, and Labour, that the self-employed needed more help and over problems being caused by lenders requesting personal guarantees on business interruption loans, he added.
He raised doubts over whether Britain’s economy could bounce back quickly with a V-shaped recovery, after a 35 per cent blow to quarterly GDP, as suggested by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast
“The Government must get two things right in order to maximise this prospect,” he said. “Firstly, it must ensure that during the crisis the economy is supported to the greatest possible extent. Here, overall, performance has been good. Second, the Government needs to navigate us out of lockdown as quickly as possible while protecting the capacity of the NHS, managing the public health risks and avoiding the health and economic catastrophe that would follow any subsequent significant surge in infections.”
