Rishi Sunak vowed to get Britain working again as furlough is wound up and lockdown lifted – handing out freebie, after freebie, after freebie – but what he missed could scupper it all.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled his plan to get Britain working again – but it’s full of holes.
He cut taxes for home buyers, offered £5,000 grants for home improvements and handed families restaurant discounts to get people eating out again.
There were also £1,000 “incentives” for bosses taking workers back from furlough and a whole suite of actions to get young people into work.
“People need to know we will do all we can to give everyone the opportunity of good and secure work,” the Chancellor told the House of Commons.
“People need to know that although hardship lies ahead, no one will be left without hope.”
He added: “Our plan has a clear goal: to protect, support and create jobs. “But he was utterly silent on childcare, renting and pensions. And without help in those areas too, everything else could unravel.
One of the keys to getting people off furlough and back to work is childcare, but there was no mention of it in the Chancellor’s speech.
As things stand, furlough will end in October, but there were no measures announced to look after younger – or even older – children.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: “It is unfathomable that the Government has once again failed to commit to any additional financial support for the early years sector.”
He added: “The Chancellor today promised that the Government would ‘protect, support and create jobs’, but the fact is that if parents are unable to access childcare because so many early years providers have been forced into closure, this simply won’t be possible.”
Becca Lyon from Save the Children said: “Key aspects of any post-Covid-19 economic recovery plan must include a stronger social security system and investment in childcare and the early years to allow all children to catch up and enable parents to get back to work.
“Without this, many of the poorest families will fall through the gaps and their children will be left behind.”
While homes were a huge focus – form tax breaks for buyers to grants to make improvements – renters were forgotton.
The main support for struggling renters during lockdown has been an eviction ban, but this is due to run out and in no way stopped landlords continuing to charge rent – and let debts build up – during the crisis.
Alicia Kennedy, Generation Rent director, said: “It is tragic the Chancellor did not take the chance today to help the half a million renters who have got behind on their rent in the last few months. While support for jobs is welcome, people are struggling to put food on the table now and face the threat of losing their home when the eviction ban is lifted next month.”
She added: “The stamp duty holiday doesn’t help renters whose incomes and savings have been destroyed by the pandemic and face a further setback to their hopes of buying a home.
“Right now the Government is leaving renters to bear the cost of the pandemic – we need Rishi Sunak to increase local housing allowance, remove the restrictions stopping people from accessing it, and end the rent debt crisis before it causes mass homelessness.”
There’s a serious problem building up with pensions too that was utterly ignored.
Current rules mean the Government will need to find enough money to raise the state pension by an estimated 18.3% when we an least afford it.
It’s because of an old promise to make sure pensions rise by at least as much as average earnings each year.
Earnings have collapsed in 2020 thanks to a combination of the furlough scheme, lockdown and pay cuts – and that means next year average wages will look like they’ve rocketed and pension will have to rise despite never having fallen.
The Government’s needs to choose between breaking a promise to pensioners, or handing them huge increases because working Brits lost money.
Aegon pensions director Steven Cameron said: “Blindly following that formula now as we move through and out of the coronavirus crisis with huge distortions to average earnings expected could create bizarre results which were never intended and which would fail any test of intergenerational fairness.”
He added: “The Chancellor will have to make a call as to whether to suspend the earnings related element, adjust it to smooth out sharp fluctuations or to make a more fundamental change, with some people viewing it as overly generous.
“But after prioritising younger generations in this Summer statement, the Chancellor will have a careful balancing act to perform to sell changes to state pensions to older generations.”
SOURCE
Mirror
