just a fortnight after he unveiled his
job support scheme to help companies
struggling during the pandemic
the chancellor rishi sunak has been
forced to expand it
he's announced new measures to help
businesses which legally have to close
because of coronavirus restrictions
in scotland some pubs and restaurants
had to shut this evening for
at least 16 days and many more may be
told to close in some parts of england
next week the prime minister will make a
statement to mps on monday
under the chancellor's latest scheme the
government will pay two-thirds of the
wages of people in businesses which
are ordered to shut the measures come
into effect
on the first of november across the uk
and last for six months
and for affected firms in england
there's an increase in grants with up to
three thousand pounds a month
paid every fortnight but some businesses
say they can't survive another period of
closure
even with financial assistance here's
our consumer affairs correspondent
sarah corker local lockdowns and reduced
opening hours are already hurting
hospitality
on the edge of greater manchester
ultringham has been under tighter rules
since july
and the prospect of pubs and restaurants
being forced to close in areas with high
infection rates
has angered business owners it's
disastrous because the minute
the tap is turned off you've got no
ability to
generate any income the hospitality
industry is being completely and utterly
slated and respected now of
further closure is really terrifying
there will be more help to cushion the
blow
staff working for companies told to
close by law
will get two-thirds of their wages paid
for by the government
so today i'm announcing an expansion of
our job support scheme
specifically to protect those jobs of
people who work in businesses that may
be asked to close
if that happens those workers will
receive two-thirds of their wages for
the time that they're unable
to go to work and listening closely to
that
is william robinson whose brewery runs
260 pubs across the northwest
i think there is definitely a relief
that he's listening
he says if some are told to shut wage
support and an increase in business
grants of up to three
thousand pounds a month will take some
of the pressure off
the closure of a business reopening
business when that happens
and if that happens will be very
expensive for small businesses and large
businesses
they have a lot of cost and depending on
the level
of grant they get will depend whether
that will really truly cover
their expenses or not the hospitality
sector has a raft of safety measures in
place
and says it's being unfairly singled out
and the big unknown is for those
businesses that may have to close their
doors again
will today's extra financial support be
enough to help them survive in the long
term
the landlady of the bull's head in
trafford fears a difficult winter ahead
the future is very uncertain and it's
and it's it's quite scary you know we've
done a beer order
do i need the beer don't know does it
need to go down the drain
mayors representing cities in the north
of england say the chancellor's measures
don't go far enough
while labour wants more to be done to
protect jobs
in other countries those schemes are
working to incentivize employers to keep
people in work his scheme the chancellor
scheme
is just not doing that sufficiently and
we're seeing the impact in the levels of
unemployed people
and the extra financial support will
only apply to businesses
told to close by the government and all
this at the start of what should be
the lucrative christmas period sarah
corker bbc news in greater manchester
well let's talk first to our economics
editor faisal islam and what's your
assessment of the
the scale of what rishi sunak announced
today well treasury says this isn't a
u-turn they've been listening to the
voices of the likes of the
northern mayors and changing
circumstances there's a partial reverse
essentially this is the
continuation for a smaller number of the
original
furlough scheme that was due to stop at
the end of this month
but the scope is much smaller we're
talking about
a few hundred thousand workers we don't
actually know
whom because it depends of course on
which
sectors in which cities and regions are
actually
shut down we'll find that out soon we're
talking a few hundred thousand
we're talking a few hundred million a
month not billions and billions
and that's because the government wants
to target support
its strategy even as on some metrics
were at the same sort of level
of the infection as we were in march
when the
original lockdown happened they want to
deal with this locally and and that's
because of the economy
and we had more figures today and
another reminder of
of the sheer impact that this pandemic
is having on the broader economy
yes obviously we remember a huge hit to
the economy because of the widespread
national shutdown
back in april i think we can show you a
chart of that and you'll see that big
sort of cliff that v
shape and that was in april now we
started to get a bounce back in the
economy it was growing pretty rapidly
as the light switched back on that has
begun to slow down
in august raising some fears that the
recovery is beginning to peter out
even before we have the prospect of
these new restrictions
all right faizal for now thank you
faisal islam and let's talk as well
to our political correspondent alex
forsyth and
we know uh tonight alex that we will be
hearing from boris johnson on monday
yeah we know there's been concern in
downing street about the spread of the
virus for some time which has led to
days now of speculation
about the possibility of tougher
restrictions in the worst affected areas
including perhaps some temporary
closures of pubs and bars but there's
been
no detail no clarity so critics say it's
merely added to confusion and
anxiety and i think that is in part why
we had that statement from the
chancellor today an attempt to reassure
that support will be in place for
businesses that might have to close but
still no detail
of when or where that might happen so we
will hear from the prime minister
he'll address parliament on monday to
set out the next steps and tonight
number 10 has written
to some of the mps from the north west
and said it's very likely that certain
local areas
will face further restrictions now we
expect there'll be a three-tier system
introduced with different measures
depending on the severity of cases in
each area
and downing street is very keen to
stress that local leaders will be
involved in making those decisions
before they're implemented something of
an acknowledgement i think of the
frustration and anger that some local
and regional leaders have felt
in the way that restrictions have been
managed so far so the details will be
pinned down and a series of meetings
taking place in downing street over the
weekend
but i think it's pretty fair to assume
at this point that the package of
measures that the chancellor announced
today
will be put to the test fairly soon all
right alex
thank you alex forsyth