Sunak to focus on budget deficit after post-Covid outlook clears
By Caoimhe Toman
Date: Thursday 09 Jul 2020
(Sharecast News) - UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said he would focus on restoring public finances and the deficit once he had more clarity around the post-Covid-19 economic recovery.
Sunak said that interventions to support the economy had cost an extraordinary amount of money, adding that the bill for failing to take any action would have been far greater.
"We can't sustainably live like this, of course we can't, and over the medium term we can and we will return our public finances to a sustainable position," Sunak told the BBC.
"It's difficult now to get exactly the right trajectory on that, because we have an uncertain path ahead. But as soon as we have a clearer path... we can look at the situation and make sure that our public finances are back on a sustainable footing over a reasonable period of time."
On Wednesday, Sunak announced a new £2bn job creation scheme for under-25s, as a way to support the younger generations through the unemployment surge due to the pandemic.
Recently he also announced a short-term cut in VAT for hospitality and tourism and an August "eat out to help out" discount scheme to boost the services sector.
Economic experts, trade unions and the Labour party are concerned that the Sunak should act more decisively to prevent mass unemployment.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, said: "Redundancy notices are already flying around like confetti, so today was the day we needed the chancellor to put a stop to this with policies as bold and as necessary as the jobs retention scheme.
"This statement failed that test. With no modification to the JRS, that dreaded October cliff edge for businesses and workers has now been set in stone. Our fear is the summer jobs loss tsunami we have been pleading with the government to avoid will now surely only gather pace."
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