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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
James Andrews

Rishi Sunak hints Eat Out to Help out could make a comeback as economy lags behind

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said he's looking into plans to "get consumers spending" when the current coronavirus restrictions end.

His comments come after the latest figures show that - despite record growth - the UK's economy has still recovered less well from coronavirus restrictions than the US, Italy, Spain, France or Germany.

And with a new lockdown in force in England, a two-week "fire break" just completed in Wales and heavy restrictions in Scotland too, it's expected things will get worse again before they get better.

That means the Chancellor is looking hard at what can be done to get things up and running again once the restrictions end.

The scheme saw 50% off food and non-alcoholic drink on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays (Amer Ghazzal/REX/Shutterstock)

Speaking to Sky News, Sunak said: "We'll talk about specific measures, but more broadly I think it's right when we finally exit this (lockdown) and hopefully next year with testing and vaccines, we'll be able to start to look forward to getting back to normal.

"We'll have to look forward to the economic situation then and see what the best form of our support.

"We want to get consumers spending again, get them out and about, we'll look at a range of things to see what the right interventions are at that time."

And if we're talking about schemes to get people spending, then Eat Out to Help Out could well be top of the list.

The Eat Out to Help Out scheme in August was responsible for the biggest yearly increase in non-essential spending since July 2019, as people flocked back to restaurants and pubs, according to the Lloyds Bank Spending Power Report.

It also meant non-essential spend was 4% higher than the year before - the first annual increase since lockdown.

And the increase went well beyond just food and drink, with people heading back into town also spending on the high street and in places like recently-reopened cinemas.

Lloyds Bank head of payments Gabby Collins said at the time: “The Eat Out to Help Out scheme not only had a positive impact on restaurants and pubs in August and into September, but we’ve seen a real boost in high-street spending, which is now almost back up to pre lockdown levels."

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