Chancellor Sunak outlined a series of measures to help the UK’s economy following the COVID-19 lockdown. Here is a list of all announcements made:
Sunak announces discount worth up to £10 per head for eating out in August
- Sunak says his final measure has never been tried in this country.
- It is an eat out to help out scheme, offering customers as discount worth up to £10 per head when they eat on from Monday to Wednesday in August.
Sunak cuts VAT on tourism and hospitality to 5% until January
- Sunak says he has two measures to get these sectors moving.
- VAT on tourism and hospitality is at 20%.
- It will be cut to 5% until January, he says.
- This is worth £4.5bn, he says.
Sunak says 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April.
- The best jobs programme is to restart these sectors, he says.
- People are cautious about going out, he says.
- But if people are careful, we can all enjoy summer safely.
Sunak says stamp duty abolished on homes worth up to £500,000 until next March
- Turning to housing, Sunak says house building support nearly 750,000 jobs.
- But property transactions fell by 50% in May.
- Uncertainty abounds in the market, he says.
- Yet they need people to be confident.
Sunak says stamp duty will be abolished on homes worth up to £500,000.
- The cut will last until 31 March 2021.
- The average stamp duty bill will fall by £4,500, he says.
- And he says this will take effect immediately.
Sunak confirms he will spend £2bn on a new green homes grant.
- On top of this, there will be £1bn of funding to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings, he says.
- These measures should make 650,000 homes more energy efficient, saving families £300 a year, he says.
Sunak says he also wants to support job creation.
- That means historic investment in infrastructure.
‘We are double down on our ambition to level up, with better roads, better schools, better hospitals, better high streets, creating jobs in all four corners of our country.’
Sunak says the number of work coaches in job centres is being doubled.
- He says the DWP will get an extra £1bn for this project.
- Other schemes to get people into work are being expanded or created.
Sunak says there will be more funding for careers advisers, and more traineeships.
- And apprenticeships work too, he says. He says 91% of apprentices stay in work or do further training afterwards.
- So there will be a new £2,000 payment for firms to take on apprentices.
- He says the government will pay young people’s wages for up to six months.
- It will amount to a grant worth around £6,500 per young person.
- He says £2bn is being made available now.
- And there will be no cap on the number of places funded, he says.
