Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Shop owners are questioning why the government is only okaying furlough staff to work part-time from August, despite encouraging them to re-open next month.
Small retail businesses face a disastrous couple of months before furloughed staff are allowed to come back part-time, with office workers staying away and restaurants and bars closed.
Kate Evans owns independent fashion boutique Precious, which is based in the City of London and whose customers include City workers now working from home.
Evans said: “With offices and restaurants closed, we don’t know how much demand there will be when we reopen next month. The government says it wants independent retailers like us to reopen. Yet we can’t take back furloughed staff to work part-time during these crucial next couple of months. This all-or-nothing approach doesn’t make sense. The furlough scheme needs to be more flexible to support reopening.”
>See also: Rishi Sunak extends job retention furlough scheme to October
Many independent retailers are planning to reopen on a part-time basis initially.
Lobbyists say that the Treasury to open up the furlough scheme now to allow part-time work in retail, what with demand so weak. By August, many are afraid there will be no shops
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Support for tourism, hospitality needs to be extended, says Ed Milliband
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Economic support for those small business sectors hit hardest by coronavirus needs to be extended once Britain emerges from lockdown, says Ed Milliband.
The shadow business secretary said that travel, tourism and hospitality will need extended help from Treasury even as the rest of the country opens up again.
Milliband, speaking in a Zoom conference call hosted by accountancy software firm Intuit, said: “Economic support must match the lockdown exit strategy. The support needs to go on for longer if lockdown goes on for longer. If you lift lockdown too early, the implications for the economy and for the country would be disastrous.”
See also: Small business minister trying to help owner-directors hit by coronavirus
Shadow chancellor Annelise Dodds, speaking on the same call, echoed Milliband, saying that those small businesses in the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors could face disruption “for years”, and that there needs to be an ongoing system in place to support them.
Ed Milliband also voiced support for the furlough scheme to be softened so that small business employees could do some work even while furloughed, while the country drifts back to work.
‘Small businesses are in the frontline of this crisis’
Many small businesses