Nearly 100,000 workers in industries deemed not 'viable' in Yorkshire 'abandoned' by Government, Labour claims

Chancellor Rishi Sunak set out new measures last week to come into place once the furlough scheme, which has been paying wages to the tune of £39bn, comes to an end.

But the new job support scheme only supports “viable” jobs, where employees can work at least third of their normal hours.

And Labour said there are swathes of industries where workers are being offered no hours at all, but that did not mean that these sectors were not viable in the long term.

The party said this was because they were either shut down completely or trading with hugely reduced capacity, in industries such as the weddings industry, events and exhibitions, major parts of the night-time economy, festivals, sports venues and theatres.

The Treasury said businesses forced to close would be eligible for grant payments of up to £1,500 for each three weeks they are closed, and they would continue working with affected businesses.

But Labour said there was no acknowledgement at all about their plight or the fact that they will be forced to remain fully or mainly closed for the next six months.

Lucy Powell MP, Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers, said: “The Chancellor is consigning whole sectors of our economy to the scrap heap, damaging lives and livelihoods, and threatening the recovery. The failure of Ministers to ensure an effective Test, Track and Trace system means that many businesses are still fully or partially shut down. The decision to shut these firms out of the Job Support Scheme adds insult to injury.”

Labour analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data found around 96,050 people in Yorkshire work in affected industries, across at least 5,820 businesses.

Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe has called for £4.2bn a year of funding for adult skills to be devolved to regions to help those who lose their jobs.

A Treasury spokesman said: “Our support for business has reached, and continues to reach, millions of firms. The job support scheme is designed to protect jobs in businesses facing lower demand over the winter due to Covid, and is just one form of support on offer to employers during this difficult period.

“Businesses can still access our loan schemes, now extended, defer VAT payments previously due in March, and benefit from business rates holidays, a moratorium of eviction for commercial tenants and the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme.

“We’re also continuing to innovate in supporting incomes and employment through our Plan for Jobs announced in July, helping employees get back to work through a £1,000 retention bonus and creating new roles for young people with our Kickstart scheme.”

It comes as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is urging the Government to call a special summit to avoid the threat of a “Covid generation” of unemployed young people.

Mr Brown said there were “fundamental flaws” in the jobs support plans announced last week by Mr Sunak.

A UK-wide jobs summit is urgently needed to avoid the threat of at least 500,000 young people being unemployed, he said.

Mr Brown will tell a Communication Workers Union conference today that the Government should “reboot” its plans.

He will say he had argued for a jobs retention plan, adding: “But I now believe – facing a winter of massive job losses, rapidly-mounting unemployment and a wave of businesses bankruptcies – the Chancellor must go back to the drawing board, call a jobs summit to understand the despair in communities and rewrite his winter plan by fixing its fundamental flaws.

“The newly announced job support scheme offers nothing new for the 1.5m currently unemployed, nothing new for the 900,000 on Universal Credit who will soon be registered as unemployed, and nothing new for the three million excluded from the furlough scheme as self-employed.

“And, shamefully, nothing additional to the inadequate Kickstart scheme for young people, 500,000 of whom will likely end up on the streets or isolated at home, falling through the net in ‘breadline Britain’ with absolutely nothing to do and becoming this century’s lost generation.

“Nor was there anything new for the struggling town centres and high streets to speed up much-needed infrastructure investment or to expedite a job-creating Green New Deal.”

Mr Brown will tell conference delegates that the impending “tsunami” of unemployment and a wave of business bankruptcies had driven him to help form the new UK-wide Alliance For Full Employment.

“We must bring all parts of the country – nations and regions – together to demand action to save and create two million jobs.”

The alliance is calling for a UK summit of national and regional leaders, including metro mayors and business and unions, to examine a new jobs plan.