Furlough scheme extended by a month
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Chancellor Rishi Sunak has revealed that the furlough scheme will be extended one extra month until the end of April 2021.
He said the extension would provide "certainty for millions of jobs and businesses."
The criteria for the scheme have not changed so the UK government will continue to pay up to 80 per cent of the wages of workers who have been furloughed.
Alongside that announcement, Mr Sunak also confirmed government-guaranteed Covid business loan schemes would also be extended, this time until the end of March.
"Our package of support for businesses and workers continues to be one of the most generous and effective in the world, helping our economy to recover and protecting livelihoods across the country," he said.
"We know the premium businesses place on certainty, so it is right that we enable them to plan ahead regardless of the path the virus takes, which is why we're providing certainty and clarity by extending this support."
The changes will effectively span the budget announcement, which he said would take place on March 3.
It is a budget, he said, that would "set out the next phase of the plan to tackle the virus and protect jobs."
The Autumn budget was cancelled for the second year in a row, the first was due to the November election and the second due to the pandemic.
The SNP's finance minister Kate Forbes slammed Number 11 for the move meaning that again the Scottish Government would have to set its spending plans without knowing precisely the size of the grant from Westminster.
