New support measures 4.6 bn. Pounds

New measures to support and alleviate British companies were announced yesterday by the country’s Minister of Finance, Risi Sunak, which measures are valued at 4.6 billion pounds, or 5.1 billion euros. The interventions concern the sectors that have received the strongest blow from the coronavirus pandemic and the successive restrictive measures and they are retail, hospitality and entertainment. Each unit will be entitled to claim up to 9,000 pounds, ie almost 10,000 euros. This large-scale economic support program aims to keep the aforementioned activities alive until the end of April. According to Risi Sunak, almost 600,000 companies will receive the lump sum subsidy, while he admitted that the coming months will be difficult. Hence, he added, the government is stepping up its efforts to protect jobs and avoid bankruptcy.

Under the ,6 4.6 billion package, 4 4 billion will be given in the form of one-off financial aid, while 59 594 million will be allocated to local councils to help businesses affected by the new quarantine However, they are not eligible for grants. As Adam Marshall, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, points out to the Guardian, “While this immediate boost in cash flow for businesses is welcome, it is unfortunately not enough to save many of them. The appropriate thing would be a comprehensive package of assistance measures for the twelve months of 2021 in total and not another gradually increasing intervention. “The government needs to move away from this kind of approach and come up with a long-term plan that will allow all businesses, without exception, to plan for their future and finally be able to survive.”

Richie Sunak, who has already allocated almost 300 300 billion (€ 332.5 billion) to deal with the effects of the crisis on the economy, businesses and households, stressed that “stricter restrictions need to be imposed, despite the that a vaccination program is being implemented because the virus mutation is a major problem “. He also said that the new package of initiatives will help companies to survive in the coming months, but will also help maintain jobs so that employees are ready to recover when they are able to reopen.

In particular, the British Treasury announced that a grant of 4. 4,000 would be given to companies with an estimated value of 15 15,000 or less, 000 6,000 for businesses with an estimated value of between .000 15,000 and .000 51,000 and .000 9,000 for businesses with an estimated value of more than .000 51,000. It is worth mentioning that some business associations are asking the government of Boris Joson to extend the “freeze” in the payment of taxes for another year, in order to strengthen the cash flows of companies or to maintain for a longer period the temporary reduction of VAT, a measure that is expected to last until January 31st.

Finally, many analysts predict that, after the UK economy shrank dramatically by 22.1% in the first half of last year, there will be a new contraction in the last quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, when it will face a double recession.