Andrew Sparrow and Graeme Wearden (now); Matthew Weaver (earlier) 

UK coronavirus live: Rishi Sunak unveils stamp duty cut, furlough bonus and August discount for eating out – as it happened

Chancellor delivers summer statement in the Commons on UK economic recovery from pandemic
  
  


Afternoon summary

  • Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has unveiled what is effectively an emergency coronavirus budget, pledging new measures worth up to £30bn that are intended to help protect jobs when the current furlough scheme runs out and the economic crash starts to send unemployment soaring. By any normal standards the sums being spent are staggering, but the crisis has upended economic thinking and Sunak was criticised by the opposition parties for not showing enough ambition. (See 1.40pm and 4.34pm.) Many of the measures had been been written up or speculated about in advance, including a green homes grant (£2bn), a stamp duty cut (£4bn), a VAT cut for the hospitality sector (£4bn) and a kickstart scheme subsidising jobs for the young (£2bn). But there were some surprises. The most talked about may be one that was, at £500m, comparatively cheap - an “Eat Out to Help Out” discount scheme for people eating out in August, from Monday to Wednesdays. But the most significant, and expensive, was the £9bn job retention bonus. In his speech Sunak said the furlough system had to end in October. He explained:

Leaving the furlough scheme open forever gives people false hope that it will always be possible to return to the jobs they had before.

The job retention bonus will pay firms £1,000 if they retain furloughed staff, provided they are kept on until January. Arguably this might just delay the point at which people are made redundant. But, to coin a phrase, you could see this as flattening the curve.

Here is our main story on the summer statement.

Here is a summary of the key points.

Here is a column on it from Martin Kettle, in which he argues that Sunak is “now the most important person in the Conservative government, Boris Johnson included”.

And here is an extract from Martin’s article.

The long-term question for Sunak and his party is what kind of economy they are trying to create during this unprecedented time. His statement gave a hint about the need to return to sustainable public finances, but different sides of the Tory party can read different things into that. There was no strategic vision. The idea that there can be no going back to the old economic normal, on which much has been written, was ignored. There was almost nothing said at all about fiscal rules or about tax and borrowing. There was only a quiet admission that many of the jobs that existed before the pandemic have gone for good ...

Where Sunak stands on this is not yet clear. He plays his cards close to his chest. By background and inclination he is a Thatcherite small-state, free-market politician. His style and language are centrist. But he was made chancellor by a prime minister who demanded control of economic policy in order to spend more.

That’s all from us for tonight.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Samuel Tombs of economics consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics says Rishi Sunak has given employers an incentive to bring more workers back part time, rather than fewer full time:

Updated

ITV’s Robert Peston thinks the August meal deal might just lead to more people eating out earlier in the week, instead of at the weekend.

The UK car industry is unhappy that Rishi Sunak announced no targeted support for their sector today.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, says other countries are providing more help:

Today’s announcements to safeguard jobs and encourage consumer spending in some parts of the economy are welcome – but it’s bitterly disappointing the chancellor has stopped short of supporting the restart of one of the UK’s most important employers and a driver of growth.

“The automotive sector has been particularly hard hit, with thousands of job losses already announced and many more at risk. Of Europe’s five biggest economies, Britain now stands alone in failing to provide any dedicated support for its automotive industry, a situation that will only deter future investment.

There had been speculation that the government might launch a scrappage scheme to encourage people to trade in old cars for new models. Sales in 2020 are down over 48%, to their lowest level since 1971.

Updated

Updated

Here is the start of a Twitter thread from Faiza Shaheen, head of the Class (Centre for Labour and Social Studies) thinktank, on the summer statement.

And this is her conclusion.

Here’s our Money editor, Hilary Osborne, on the temporary cancellation of stamp duty on property sales up to £500,000:

The cut will make a difference for anyone buying a property over the old thresholds. For first-time buyers, it will generally be those in the south-east and London who stand to benefit, as elsewhere they would typically not be spending more than £300,000.

The saving could allow people to move more quickly than planned – instead of needing the money for tax, they can now channel it towards their deposit.

About half a million households will not pay the tax, according to analysis by the property firm Hamptons. It says 12% of sales are above £500,000 and these will also involve a saving, but the biggest reductions in percentage terms will be at the lower end. A buyer moving to an £800,0000 home will see their bill cut in half, while someone paying £5m will get a reduction of less than 3%.

The tax is paid after a sale is completed, so anyone who is part-way through buying a property will benefit.

More here:

Updated

IFS verdict on summer statement

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has released its first full statement on the Rishi Sunak announcement. Here is the overview from its director, Paul Johnson.

Prior to today, the total value of new measures announced since March was thought to stand at £130bn. Today the Treasury revised that figure up to nearly £160bn, with £30bn more being spent on public services, especially health. The chancellor also set out new measures worth a further £30bn.

More support may well need to be announced in the autumn when we know more about the path of the virus and of the economy, but this was another big package from the chancellor. It was focused on the right things, such as jobs for the young, but its size in part reflects how hard it is to target resources only where they are really needed. Much of the job retention bonus cash will be paid in respect of employees who would have (or indeed have already) returned to work anyway, for example.

Here are some other points the IFS is making about the announcement.

  • The government has spent an extra £30bn on health services since March, of which £15bn has gone on PPE, according to the Treasury documents.
  • The government will be spending almost £190bn on coronavirus rescue measures on the basis of what has been announced so far, almost 9% of what the UK economy produced in 2019-20.
  • The kickstart job subsidy scheme for the young is very similar to Labour’s future jobs fund in 2009, which had “lasting positive impacts on the employment of those employed under the scheme”.
  • The IFS says that if takeaways had been included in the August food discount scheme, that would be “more effective in increasing output without compromising social distancing”.
  • The IFS says there is a risk that the energy efficiency vouchers will “lead to inflated prices of energy efficiency equipment, particularly if the scope of eligible spending is narrow”.

Updated

Sacha Lord, nighttime economy adviser for Greater Manchester, is also concerned that pubs that mainly sell beer are not benefiting from the VAT cut:

Lord has welcomed the “Eat out to help out” scheme, but cautions that restaurants and pubs need to maintain social distancing.

[Correction: Greene King CEO Nick Mackenzie didn’t actually mention “traditional pubs” as I mistakenly wrote earlier (now fixed). Apologies. GW]

Updated

The Ministry of Justice has announced that cleaners in its central London offices will now receive full pay if they are self-isolating or off sick, our colleague Harriet Grant reports here. The announcement follows Guardian reports in June that the MoJ failed to investigate a potential Covid-19 cluster among its cleaners.

Here is some more reaction to the summer statement from three of the smaller parties at Westminster.

From the SNP’s Treasury spokeswoman, Alison Thewliss:

The chancellor’s statement was a missed opportunity to put building a fairer society at the heart of the recovery – with no measures to boost family incomes or reverse the soaring levels of child poverty and inequality that shame the UK.

The coronavirus crisis has exposed and exacerbated the deep inequalities that a decade of Tory austerity cuts have caused. What we needed today from the chancellor was serious action and investment to put money in people’s pockets. Instead, we got a few sticking plasters and an ‘Eat out to help out’ scheme that shows just how out of touch the Tories are. Many people can barely afford to eat at all, let alone dine out with a small discount.

From the acting Lib Dem leader, Sir Ed Davey:

Totally absent today was any measure to help the millions excluded from Covid support – like new starters, newly self-employed people and freelancers. They haven’t been helped at all so far and yet represent some of the most vulnerable groups. They must not be left behind.

Fundamentally, we need a radically new approach to building a radical new green economy for everyone. We must match the scale of the economic and climate crises with the courage to invest £150bn over three years in a green recovery plan for green jobs in all parts of our country.

Sadly, ministers have fallen far far short of what is needed for people and for the climate.

From Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake:

We know that local lockdowns will become the new normal, but we still have no financial measures to support them. For weeks we have been calling for local furlough-like schemes, but today the chancellor missed the opportunity to address this obvious upcoming issue.

Updated

Economic thinktank NIESR is not impressed with the summer statement.

They reckon that ending the furlough scheme at the end of October will hurt confidence; the new £1,000 bonus for taking staff back on may not provide enough support.

Garry Young, the National Institute Of Economic and Social Research deputy director, says some companies will now lay off furloughed staff:

While the aim of the summer statement is laudable, the new measures look to be badly timed and could precipitate a rapid increase in unemployment.

The incentives offered to employers look too small to be effective. Many employers have been topping up the pay of furloughed workers and are expected to bear more of the cost of the scheme from next month. They will be reluctant to do this now they know that the scheme won’t be extended.

Updated

Today’s temporary VAT cut is likely to end up boosting revenues in the hospitality sector, rather than cutting prices, our colleague Rob Davies reports:

Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, says Rishi Sunak’s summer statement will not do enough to protect jobs. He says:

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 (JRS).

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 that the summer jobs loss tsunami we have been pleading with the government to avoid will now surely only gather pace ...

The jobs retention bonus barely touches the sides of what needs to be done to support our strategic industries, which are looking enviously across the Channel at governments giving up to two years’ support to help businesses and workers get back on their feet.

Where was the long-term and creative approach urgently needed to protect the jobs of Britain’s workers – such as short-time working – while we build back demand?

Updated

The latest Guardian Politics Weekly podcast is out. Jonathan Freedland and Kate Proctor look at what Rishi Sunak announced in the summer statement. Rajeev Syal speaks to Sir Peter Soulsby about what the government got wrong with Leicester’s local lockdown. Plus, Kate Andrews and Lord Stewart Wood discuss the politics of a second wave. It’s here.

Care homes in Wales 'badly let down' by Welsh government, Senedd committee says

It is not just the UK Conservative government that is getting criticised for its handling of care homes during the coronavirus crisis. In the Welsh parliament (or Senedd), the health, social care and sport committee has published a report (pdf) saying the Welsh Labour government “badly let down” care homes. It says:

We are deeply troubled by the number of Covid-related deaths in care homes. Care homes look after some of our oldest and most vulnerable members of society. They deserve to be protected in the event of a national health emergency, yet they have been badly let down during this crisis.

It is our view that the Welsh government’s initial approach to testing in care homes was flawed, and that it was subsequently too slow in responding to the mounting crisis that has seen deaths in care homes account for 28% of all coronavirus deaths in Wales ...

It took too long to implement appropriate testing measures for care homes. The initial decision not to test hospital patients being discharged into care homes has subsequently been reversed, as has the decision not to test residents and staff in care homes unless they are showing symptoms; the latter was done considerably later than in England and Scotland. Both decisions have come at great cost to the social care sector.

Updated

Today the National Records of Scotland also published one of its occasional analyses on coronavirus deaths by ethnic group.

Based on data from mid-March to mid-June, the key finding is that deaths among people in the south Asian ethnic group – which includes Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi – were almost twice as likely to involve Covid-19 as deaths in the white ethnic group, after accounting for age group, sex, area-level deprivation and urban rural classification.

In April Guardian research revealed that ethnic minorities in England were dying in disproportionately high numbers compared with white people, with people from minority groups appearing to be over-represented among the coronavirus deaths, by as much as 27%.

Updated

UK death toll rises by 126

The Department of Health and Social Care has published its latest UK coronavirus death figures. There have been a further 126 deaths, taking the total to 44,517.

This is just the figure for people who have tested positive and died. As we try to point out every day, this official headline total used by the government is not the actual total. That is because these figures only include people who tested positive for coronavirus and died. Taking into account the deaths of people who did not have a test, but where coronavirus was cited on the death certificate, the real total is more than 55,000.

Overall, the daily death toll seems to be closer to plateauing rather than continuing to decline. Here is the latest chart from the government’s coronavirus dashboard (which does not include today’s figures because, confusingly, it does not get updated daily at the same time as the DHSC figures come out).

Updated

Landlords who mainly sell beer rather than food may feel a little bitter tonight.

The government’s temporary VAT cut only applies to food and non-alcoholic drinks.

Nick Mackenzie, chief executive of Greene King, says it’s disappointing that beer isn’t covered too:

The new eating-out discount will be a great encouragement for customers to support the nation’s pubs at this vital time.

While the cut to VAT on food is great news for the hospitality sector, it’s disappointing that it doesn’t extend to beer, given the heavy tax burden on brewers.

The Campaign for Real Ale is also concerned that community pubs are losing out. Many need a sales boost, having been closed for several months during the lockdown.

Updated

In his speech Rishi Sunak said he would be publishing research showing that the poor have been protected the most by the coronavirus measures taken so far.

Here is the Treasury document (pdf) he was referring to. And here is the key chart in it, which tries to estimate the impact various government measures had on household incomes by May, compared with what would have happened if there had been no intervention.

Updated

Manchester mayor Burnham calls for more Covid-19 patient data

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has welcomed the measures outlined in Rishi Sunak’s statement but said they belonged to “normal economic times” and that much more needed to be done to “build resilience in our poorest communities”.

He said the chancellor should have increased the rate of statutory sick pay (SSP) from £95.85 per week and extended it to the 2 million workers for whom it is not currently available. The former Labour minister said people felt compelled to go into work despite being ill because they cannot afford to live on SSP.

Social care staff should have been given an immediate pay rise and been able to isolate on full pay, Burnham said, adding that there was no support for directors of limited companies who had been “forgotten” by the Treasury.

On coronavirus, Burnham said he had written to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, today to raise “specific concerns” from the region’s public health directors about the lack of data being provided by the government.

He said the lack of complete and timely data from the government on patients affected, their ethnicity, and test and trace results was hampering the local response to any outbreaks.

The government has said it cannot provide data on specific patients due to confidentiality rules. However, Burnham said the deadlock was preventing health officials from launching speedy investigations and that providing patient data was normal practice for any notifiable disease, adding:

Patient confidentiality ... does not trump public health and protecting lives in the middle of a pandemic.

Updated

NHS England has announced there have been a further 42 coronavirus hospital deaths in England. The full details are here.

This is the highest daily figure for a week. For comparison, here are the equivalent daily figures for the past fortnight.

Wednesday 24 June - 51

Thursday 25 June - 55

Friday 26 June - 67

Saturday 27 June - 78

Sunday 28 June - 18

Monday 29 June - 19

Tuesday 30 June - 37

Wednesday 1 July - 50

Thursday 2 July - 35

Friday 3 July - 38

Saturday 4 July - 39

Sunday 5 July - 18

Monday 6 July - 15

Tuesday 7 July - 36

Updated

The CEBR thinktank estimates that the stamp duty holiday will create 41,000 extra homes sales, by trimming £4,400 off the average cost of moving house.

It could also drag another 60,000 sales forward as people try to take advantage before it runs out next March.

Kay Daniel Neufeld, head of macroeconomics at CEBR, says the property market could struggle in 2021:

We do expect, however, further weakness ahead as the slowdown in the economy, the end of the mortgage payment holiday and the rise in unemployment will exert downward pressure on prices.

Here’s the announcement, if you missed it earlier:

The stamp duty cut only applies in England and Northern Ireland, on the first £500,000 – but the devolved governments in Wales and Scotland could choose to introduce it too.

Updated

The stamp duty holiday announced today has caused quite a stir in the property sector, with some industry figures warning it will distort the market in England and Northern Ireland.

David Westgate, CEO at consultancy Andrews Property Group, says it’s a “high-risk” move that could drive prices sharply higher in the short-term.

Making the much anticipated stamp duty cut temporary is a gamble if the economy hasn’t recovered by the spring.

It is possible that we will have a boom scenario between now and April next year when a disproportionate number of people are buying at higher prices followed by softer prices when the scheme ends and asking prices are adjusted.

Arguably the real winners will be purchasers of higher value properties who have just had £15k knocked off their completion bill, not the people it was intended for.

Cliff-edge deadlines completely distort the market and rarely benefit the consumer.

Yorkshire Building Society’s strategic economist, Nitesh Patel, argues stamp duty should be reformed. Sunak’s temporarily cut will mainly help the south of England, he warns:

I would expect more homes to come on to the market as the stamp duty cut will improve the saleability of a home.

However, this measure is unlikely to solve the inherent issues in the housing market. The cut will most help buyers in high-value areas, which are mainly in London, the south-east and south-west of England. The average first home in northern regions is below £150,000 and around 90% of first-time buyers in England won’t see any benefit from this change.

Chris Denning, partner at MHA MacIntyre Hudson, reckons the holiday is too short to provide long-term help:

The time period of the stamp duty relief announced by the chancellor, from now until 31 March 2021, is relatively short. It gives little opportunity for house builders to use the reduction to inform strategic decisions on construction plans beyond the next nine months.

The current fall in house prices may also encourage people to sit tight until the market recovers and there is huge uncertainty around job security. This policy will likely need extending in order to have real economic impact.

Updated

The Treasury is still working on a separate plan to help the long-term unemployed, according to a line in the Plan for Jobs document (pdf). This is from Robert Colvile from the Centre for Policy Studies thinktank.

Updated

Business groups like the chancellor’s announcement.

Here is an extract from the response from Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI director general.

Today’s jobs plan is an important step forward. For young people, the kickstarter scheme will help create jobs in the short-run that can turn into opportunities for the long-run, and firms look forward to working with government to get it up and running quickly and well. It is also good to see direct support for apprenticeships and careers advice, which will help build the skills as well as the jobs of the future.

And this is from Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at City firm IG, predicts that Rishi Sunak will need to produce more stimulus measures in the autumn budget. Today’s announcement won’t be enough to protect the economy...

£9 billion for a job retention scheme and £2 billion job creation scheme for young people are two of the big ticket measures announced, but it still seems like tinkering around the edges when set against a 25% contraction in GDP.

Pubs and housebuilders have been boosted by the news of additional programmes to boost consumer spending on meals out, a cut in VAT for tourism and hospitality and a stamp duty holiday.

But for an economy so reliant on consumer spending, these are just trifles, of little use if consumers remain worried about the longer-term outlook for jobs and spending.

Mr Sunak gets 5 out of 5 for effort today, but he will need to repeat the performance later this year and again in early 2021, since as he himself admits, we have only just begun the journey to recovery.

Updated

Labour’s call for the furlough scheme to be extended beyond October has been backed by an unexpected ally - City firm JP Morgan.

Mike Bell, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, argues that the chancellor is “giving with one hand, while taking away with the other”.

He fears the new £1,000 jobs retention bonus, temporary VAT cut, stamp duty holiday and jobcentre support won’t make up for the removal of the support for furloughed staff, writing:

On the one hand, the economy will be better off as a result of today’s announcements. That said, they’re unlikely to be enough to offset the coming hit to the economy from the scheduled winding down of the furlough scheme, potentially before activity has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Removing the furlough scheme before activity has recovered is like building three-quarters of a bridge and not finishing it because it is becoming expensive. Prematurely winding down the scheme risks having merely delayed job losses for millions of people, particularly in the worst-affected sectors such as hospitality and retail.

Updated

Angela Merkel has said the European Union should prepare for talks with the UK to end in no deal.

Speaking in the European parliament in Brussels, the German chancellor said progress in talks had been “slim, to put it diplomatically”. She explained:

We agreed with the United Kingdom to accelerate the pace of talks to reach an agreement by autumn, an agreement that can be ratified by the end of the year. I will continue to push for a good solution but we should also prepare for a possible no-deal scenario.

Germany took over the rotating presidency of the EU council on 1 July and is likely to play an increasingly important role behind the scenes as talks enter a crucial stage in the autumn.

Merkel did not refer to Boris Johnson’s own preferred July deadline, widely seen as unrealistic by the EU side.

Updated

Damian McBride, a Labour adviser who used to work as a civil servant at HM Revenue and Customs and then the Treasury, thinks the VAT cut for hospitality and tourism will turn out to be less generous than implied.

Larry Elliott: Eye-catching attempts to avoid mass unemployment

Rishi Sunak is trying to save Britain from a mass unemployment crisis with a ‘turbocharged’ summer statement, writes our economics editor Larry Elliott:

The first eye-catching announcement was the novel idea that anybody who eats out from Monday to Wednesday in August will receive 50% off their bill up to a maximum of £10.

Sunak called it “eat out to help out”, but the soundbite disguised a serious problem: after months of being told of the dangers of Covid-19, many consumers are now extremely wary of going out to cafes and bars even though restrictions are now being relaxed. The expected rush to the pub after last week’s reopening in England failed to materialise.

The same thinking applies to Sunak’s second important proposal: the decision to cut VAT for businesses in the hospitality and tourism sectors from 20% to 5% until March. Again, the plan is to provide an incentive for households to go out and spend rather than save over the coming months.

Given that the chancellor has made the VAT cut time limited, there is a risk that spending will fall sharply when prices go back up next spring. This, though, is a gamble Sunak thinks is worth taking. The hope is that the economy will be through the worst by early 2021 and that the hospitality and leisure sectors will be able to cope by then.

More here:

Unions have expressed disappointment with the summer spending announcement.

Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said there should have been targeted support for manufacturing sectors most at risk. She said:

Mass unemployment is now the biggest threat facing the UK, as shown by the thousands of job losses at British Airways, Airbus and elsewhere. The government must do far more to stem the rising tide of redundancies.

The chancellor should have announced targeted support for the hardest-hit sectors like manufacturing and aviation. Struggling businesses will need more than a one-off job retention bonus to survive and save jobs in the long-term.

And Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, said there should have been more for the public services. He said:

While there’s much for young people, the energy sector and UK businesses to celebrate, there’s next to nothing for public services and the workers who’ve kept the country going through the last few difficult months.

With extra funds, national and local public services could provide many more jobs. A much-deserved early pay rise for health workers and council staff would mean money in their pockets to be spent on local high streets.

Here is more on the summer statement from Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The Labour Party has got its rebuttal line: today’s plan is a ‘meal deal’ not a Rooseveltian New Deal:

They’ve got a point - FDR’s massive stimulus programme amounted to 40% of US economic output. Today’s meal discount is rather more modest, estimated to cost £500m (or 0.02% of GDP). The temporary VAT cut (which will also make meals out cheaper) is costing another £4.1bn.

But as Robert Peston pointed out earlier, the total cost of the government’s measures since the pandemic struck is huge, and heading over £200bn.

The Treasury’s plan for jobs document, giving all the details of the measures announced today, is now on its website here.

Fourteen-day quarantine restrictions for travellers from Spain will remain in force, Nicola Sturgeon has announced, as she confirmed that Scotland will provide air corridors with the 39 countries on the “green list” already agreed by the UK government.

But Sturgeon said that she could not give air corridors to “amber countries” which have higher prevalence of coronavirus than Scotland, such as Spain and Serbia. She said that she hoped to lift the exemption for Spain as soon as possible and would review the decision on July 20.

Yesterday, Sturgeon said that she would not simply rubber stamp the UK government’s air bridge routes, despite pressure from the air and tourism industry.

Today she again referenced the recent lockdown in Melbourne following a second spike in cases that may be due to visitors coming to Australia. She said:

We must be aware that one of our biggest risk factors as we suppress the virus here is the importation of new cases to Scotland.

She added that travellers could not get around the quarantine requirements by flying to airports in England, because passenger information would be shared with Public Health Scotland. Scottish travellers from England, or indeed Scots who travel to Portugal then journey to Spain overland, will not be able to avoid these spot checks, she insisted.

Sturgeon made the travel announcements as she confirmed there had been one more death in the last 24 hours, and an additional seven positive cases, while the latest weekly figures from the National Records of Scotland show there were 17 Covid-related deaths last week, taking the total to 4,173.

Updated

Labour claims Sunak did not do enough, claiming full 'back to work budget' needed instead

Anneliese Dodds responded to Rishi Sunak’s statment in the Commons on behalf of Labour. It was her first major outing in the chambers as shadow chancellor. Here are the main points from what she said.

  • Dodds criticised Sunak for lack of ambition, saying he should have announced a full “back to work budget” instead. She said:

It should have been the day when the millions of British people worried about their jobs and future prospects had a load taken off of their shoulders. It should have been the day when we got the UK economy firing again.

Today, Britain should have had a back to work budget, but instead we got this summer statement with many of the big decisions put off until later as the benches opposite know full well.

She accepted that the government had to take difficult decisions. But she said:

Today should have been the day when our government chose to build a bridge between what has been done so far and what needs to be done to get out economy moving again.

  • She said the furlough scheme should have been extended for some sectors. She said:

The chancellor still needs to abandon his one-size-fits-all approach to withdrawing the job retention and self employed schemes. No one is saying those schemes should stay as they are indefinitely, we have never said that on this side of the house, but we have said that the money spent on the job retention scheme must not serve merely to postpone unemployment.

The scheme must live up to its name, supporting employment in industries that are viable in the long-term and we need a strategy for the scheme to become more flexible so it can support those businesses forced to close again because of additional localised lockdowns.

  • She said the government needed a better public health response. She said:

The best the government can do to boost demand is to give consumers and workers the confidence and psychological security that they can go out to work, to shop, and to socialise in safety. So please chancellor work with your colleagues so the public health response catches up with that operating in other countries.

  • She criticised the test and trace scheme. She said:

The government’s contracts with outsourcing firms amount to almost £3bn but we still haven’t got test, track and isolate working properly in the UK like it is in many other countries.

  • She said Sunak should have done more to address “the low-value and limited scope of sick pay, risking people’s ability to self-isolate”.

Updated

The hefty cut on VAT on food, accomodation and tourist attractions runs until next January.... but Rishi Sunak could come under pressure to make it permanent.

So argues Mark Agnew, partner in the Tax practice at Baker McKenzie:

The temporary reduction in the VAT rate from 20% to 5% for the hospitality sector - covering restaurants, pubs, bars and hotels etc - is a welcome boost for a sector which has been hit badly by lockdown measures.

Many other countries in Europe have for a long time applied the reduced VAT rate to their hospitality sectors, and now the UK has followed suit there will likely be increasing pressure for it to become permanent. As with any cut in the VAT rate the key question will be the extent to which the VAT saving is passed on to the customer.”

Updated

Childcare sector disappointed by lack of help

The struggling childcare sector is disappointed by the chancellor’s statement, our colleague Sally Weale reports.

They describe it as “unfathomable” that the government had failed once again to commit to any additional financial support, despite the fact that one in four nurseries, pre-schools and childminders fear they will have to close within the year.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said the government was ignoring the fact that the childcare sector in this country is in crisis.

“The chancellor today promised that the government would ‘protect, support and create jobs’, but the fact is that if parents are unable to access childcare because so many early years providers have been forced into closure, this simply won’t be possible.

“With the furlough scheme confirmed as ending in October, the financial pressure on childcare settings is only going to worsen over the coming months. While the new job retention bonus for unfurloughed staff kept on until at least January is a welcome policy, for those providers unsure whether or not they will survive the autumn, it will come as little comfort.

“The government needs to urgently reconsider this short-sighted approach and commit to providing the financial support that the childcare sector needs not only to survive the immediate challenges caused by the coronavirus crisis, but also to remain sustainable in the longer term.”

Updated

Here is some snap reaction to the announcement from economic commentators.

From Paul Johnson, director of the IFS

From ITV’s Robert Peston

From Sky’s Ed Conway

Updated

Today’s measures are welcome, but they don’t add up to a new major macro-economic stimulus package, tweets Torsten Bell of Resolution Foundation:

The City may agree - the pound is resolutely unmoved by Rishi Sunak’s statement, unchanged today at $1.254 against the US dollar.

Updated

How jobs plan measures could cost up to £30bn

The Treasury has not published a “red book”, the document that normally accompanies a budget with 100 pages or so of detail, but it has produced a 27-page paper summarising the announcements. It is not on the Treasury website yet.

Here is the key chart from the document, showing how much the measures announced today will cost.

Estate agent: Stamp duty holiday will boost demand, and prices...

The Stamp Duty holiday on properties sold for less than £500,000 is likely to support the market, and prop up house prices.

Shares in house builders Persimmon and Barratt Development have gained 1%, with London estate Foxtons up 2.5%, as City traders anticipate a pick-up in housing demand between now and next March.

It’s also likely to push prices up as people “take the plunge” into the housing market, says Mark Peck, head of residential at estate agent Cheffins:

“Whilst the market has already been significantly busy post-lockdown, cutting stamp duty on purchases up to £500,000 really will be the catalyst get the industry flying.

The most likely impact of this measure will be a flood of buyers coming into the market who previously had sat on their hands due to political and economic uncertainty, and this flurry of activity will bring with it price rises as demand outweighs supply. However, it will also be a stimulant for those considering selling as people look to make the most of a buoyant market during the tax holiday.

Sunak says he believes in values.

He says he believes in endurance.

We will not be defined by this crisis, but by our response to it.

And that’s it. Sunak has finished.

Sunak announces discount worth up to £10 per head for eating out in August

Sunak says his final measure has never been tried in this country.

It is an “eat out to help out scheme”, offering customers as discount worth up to £10 per head when they eat out from Monday to Wednesday in August.

Updated

Sunak cuts VAT on tourism and hospitality to 5% until January

Sunak says he has two measures to get these sectors moving.

VAT on tourism and hospitality is at 20%.

It will be cut to 5% until January, he says.

This is worth £4.5bn, he says.

Sunak says 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April.

The best jobs programme is to restart these sectors, he says.

People are cautious about going out, he says.

But if people are careful, we can all enjoy summer safely.

Sunak says stamp duty abolished on homes worth up to £500,000 until next March

Turning to housing, Sunak says house building support nearly 750,000 jobs.

But property transactions fell by 50% in May.

Uncertainty abounds in the market, he says.

Yet they need people to be confident.

  • Sunak says stamp duty will be abolished on homes worth up to £500,000. The cut will last until 31 March 2021.

The average stamp duty bill will fall by £4,500, he says.

And he says this will take effect immediately.

Conservative MPs are welcoming the chancellor’s Job Retention Bonus to encourage workers to bring furloughed employees back .

Here’s Milton Keynes North MP Ben Everitt:

And Robert Courts of Witney and West Oxfordshire:

But by not extending the furlough scheme, workers still face a worrying cliff-edge this autumn -- will a £1,000 bonus make the difference to a struggling firm?

£2bn for green homes grants

Sunak confirms he will spend £2bn on a new green homes grant.

On top of this, there will be £1bn of funding to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings, he says.

These measures should make 650,000 homes more energy efficient, saving families £300 a year, he says.

Updated

Sunak says he also wants to support job creation.

That means historic investment in infrastructure.

We are double down on our ambition to level up, with better roads, better schools, better hospitals, better high streets, creating jobs in all four corners of our country.

Sunak says the number of work coaches in jobcentres is being doubled.

Other schemes to get people into work are being expanded or created.

He says the DWP will get an extra £1bn for this project.

Sunak says there will be more funding for careers advisers, and more traineeships.

And apprenticeships work too, he says. He says 91% of apprentices stay in work or do further training afterwards.

So there will be a new £2,000 payment for firms to take on apprentices.

Sunak is now announcing the kickstart scheme, that was briefed overnight.

He says the government will pay young people’s wages for up to six months.

It will amount to a grant worth around £6,500 per young person.

He says £2bn is being made available now.

And there will be no cap on the number of places funded, he says.

Updated

Sunak announces bonus scheme for firms that re-employ furloughed workers worth up to £9bn

Sunak says any employer who brings someone back off furlough, and keeps them in a job until January, will get a £1,000 bonus.

To get the bonus, firms must pay at least £520 each month.

If everyone on furlough were to benefit, this could cost £9bn, he says.

Updated

Sunak is turning to the detail now.

Furlough cannot go on for ever, he says.

If he says it should end in October, critics will say November. If he says November, they will say December.

He says keeping it open for ever will give people “false hope” that their jobs will survive.

He says the furlough scheme will wind down gradually, protecting jobs until October.

Updated

The Treasury has tweeted the government’s progress against the Covid-19 slump so far.....

Updated

Sunak says the public finances must be put back on a sustainable footing in the medium term.

Sunak says the second phase, now, is about protecting jobs.

After that will come a third phase, when they need to rebuild.

Sunak says the economy contracted by 25% - the same amount it grew over the past 18 years.

He says he will “never accept unemployment as an unavoidable outcome”.

The job of protecting employment has only just started, he says.

Updated

Sunak says nationalists cannot ignore the truth that Scotland was only able to benefit from this because “we are a united kingdom”.

Sunak says the economic response is moving through three phases.

In the first stage the lockdown was announced.

One of the largest economic responses in the world was announced, a £160bn plan.

He ways they spent £49bn protecting public services.

And research being published today will show the poorest were protected the most.

Rishi Sunak delivers summer economic update

Rishi Sunak starts by saying in March, when he delivered his budget, he knew people were worried. They are worried still.

They are anxious about unemployment rising.

We will do all we can to give everyone the opportunity of good and secure work.

The summer economic update is about to start.

Steve Baker, a Conservative, says we must get Brexit done. Can the PM confirm the Northern Irish protocol won’t stop the UK applying whole-UK tariffs?

Johnson says the protocol won’t lead to anything hindering GB/NI trade.

Labour’s John Spellar says blue passports are being produced by a French company in a Polish factory. Will the PM instruct councils and government to buy British?

Johnson says the government will actively buy British. But it will not turn its face against international free trade, he says.

Johnson says the government remains committed to building 40 new hospitals.

Labour’s Catherine West asks the PM to legislate to protect people at risk of homelessness.

Johnson says the way the government was able to help the homeless was one of the best features of the crisis.

Danny Kruger, a Conservative, asks what the PM will do to strengthen community spirit.

Johnson says he thinks there is a chance to build on the way the nation came together during the coronavirus crisis.

Labour’s Mohammad Yasin asks the PM to apologise to care workers.

Johnson restates the tribute he paid to care workers earlier.

Johnson says the government will be saying more later this week about the timetable for premises not currently allowed to open to open.

Labour’s Alex Norris asks if the PM will change the law to protect shop workers from assault.

Johnson says there should be zero tolerance of this.

Simon Fell, a Conservative, asks about a plan for a bridge in Cumbria.

Johnson says he will give what support he can.

Rachel Hopkins says Luton council faces having to make cuts worth £22m. Will the PM help?

Johnson says the aviation sector has been badly hit. And the government is supporting councils too. He says the government is supporting the aviation industry, which will help provide revenue for Luton council.

Nick Fletcher, a Conservative, says Doncaster needs a new hospital.

Johnson says he will be visiting Doncaster very soon to discuss this.

The SNP’s Angela Crawley says many self-employed people cannot access the furlough scheme for the self-employed. Will the government extend it? This group has just been told to apply for loans?

Johnson says the government has massively increased universal credit, which may benefit this group.

Johnson says the summer statement will say more about jobs for young people.

The SDLP’s Colum Eastwood asks if the PM will back a free port in Derry.

Johnson says he will study plans for this.

Johnson says he has been “amazed” to hear that Labour is proposing a wealth tax, a tax on homes.

They want to tax, tax, tax, we want jobs, jobs, jobs.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, starts by referring to the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre on Saturday.

He says millions of people could be out of work when the furlough scheme ends. Will the government continue it?

Johnson says people around the world have been impressed by the scheme. But it cannot go on for ever.

He says the UK government funded it.

Blackford says this is about the future. Spain is extending its furlough scheme into 2021. He says there is a potential loss of up to £50bn. The Resolution Foundation wants it extended for some sectors, he says. He says the PM “seems intent on sinking the lifeboat that keeps so many people afloat”. If the PM won’t extend it, will it give Scotland the powers to do so.

Johnson says he wants to get the economy moving, including in Scotland.

Mark Pawsey, a Conservative, asks about funding for hospices.

Johnson thanks hospices for the work they do.

Starmer asks about free hospital parking for NHS staff. If they lose this, NHS staff may have to pay hundreds of pounds more a month.

Johnson says hospital car parks are free now for NHS staff. And the government will make them free for patients. That never happened under Labour. Starmer should take his latest bandwagon and park it somewhere else. He says Starmer takes one brief one week, one brief another. He is “consistent only in his opportunism”, he says.

Starmer says the PM continues to insult people in this sector by not taking this issue seriously. He says he raised concerns about care homes several weeks ago. Johnson denied what had happened.

Johnson says the understanding of the disease changed “dramatically” over time. Government measures have helped get the incidence down to record levels, he says.

He says the country needs a “steady, stable approach”.

Starmer says of course he will join in plans for reform. But this government has been in power for 10 years.

He says one in 20 care home residents died. Will the PM accept that his government is responsible.

Johnson says this government takes responsibility for everything it has done. But it also put forward a care homes action plan that got the incidence right down. There is now weekly testing for every care home worker.

Starmer says by refusing to apologise the PM is rubbing salt in the wounds for people they clap. He quotes a care worker saying she was livid with what he said. What would the PM say to her?

Johnson says he would like to say he appreciates the incredible work care workers have done.

He says he hopes there will be cross-party support for social care reform.

Starmer says that was not an apology. It “just won’t wash”, he says. He quotes a care home boss saying what the PM said was appalling. Will the PM apologise to care workers, yes or no?

Johnson says it is “simply not the case” that he tried to blame care workers. He says it is just the case that people did not know about asymptomatic transmission. The procedures had to be changed, he says. He says he wants to thank care workers.

Sir Keir Starmer says the PM’s comment on care homes on Monday caused huge offence. Will the PM apologise?

Johnson says the last thing he wanted to do was to blame care workers, or for them to think he was. He says he takes full responsibility for what happened.

But early on no one knew that the virus was being passed asymptomatically in the way it was. That is why the guidance changed. Thanks to the hard work of care workers, the incidence has come down.

Johnson says Lichfield will benefit from the arts bailout.

Labour’s Anna McMorrin says she is shocked by how a firm like Boohoo can treat their workers. What will the PM do about it?

Boris Johnson says the government has introduced protections for workers. He says the Labour mayor of Leicester should be protecting workers in the city.

Updated

PMQs

PMQs is starting soon

Here is the call list (pdf) showing which MPs are down to ask a question.

Coronavirus outbreak forces hospital in Boris Johnson's constituency to close for emergency admissions

Hillingdon hospital, which is in Boris Johnson’s west London constituency, has had to close for emergency admissions after an outbreak of coronavirus amongst staff, the Evening Standard has revealed.

A spokesman for Hillingdon hospitals NHS foundation trust said:

An outbreak of Covid-19 was declared on Friday, July 3, 2020.

As of Tuesday, July 7, 70 members of staff are now isolating, a number of whom have tested positive for Covid-19.

As a result, the trust has taken the precautionary decision to close Hillingdon hospital to emergency ambulances and emergency admissions.

The trust is managing the outbreak in line with Public Health England guidance.

Updated

Ombudsman services are bracing themselves to be inundated with complaints as a result of Covid-19, MPs have heard. As PA Media reports, Anthony Arter, who is the pensions ombudsman and pension protection fund ombudsman, told the Commons work and pensions committee:

I had a meeting about a month ago with other public sector ombudsmen. And everyone is agreed that public sector ombudsmen will be inundated with complaints as a result of Covid.

I don’t think pensions will be any exception to that. If you look at the financial strain that people are going to be suffering, going forward, and they’ve got a pot of money there in their pension scheme, the big concern is the fraudsters coming in to say: ‘We can help you get that money.’

You’ve got perhaps people under 55 and those fraudsters will be saying: ‘We can help you release that money,’ and of course they can’t.

Updated

Treasury abandons plan to treat coronavirus tests paid by employers as taxable benefit

As my colleague Kate Proctor reports, quite what is going to happen to free hospital parking for NHS staff in England remains unclear, but we have had one bona fide Treasury U-turn today.

Yesterday it emerged that the Treasury was planning to make workers pay income tax on Covid-19 tests purchased by their employers.

Now, in response to protests from Mel Stride, the Conservative chair of the Commons Treasury committee and others, Rishi Sunak has granted an exemption, meaning coronavirus tests will no longer be treated as a benefit in kind for tax purposes. Sunak confirmed this in a letter to Stride sent last night.

Stride said:

It would not have been right to increase the tax bill for workers every time that they had a coronavirus test. I’m glad that common sense has prevailed. And I’m grateful that the chancellor has listened to the Treasury committee and reversed this decision so swiftly.

Updated

Here is the Mirror’s Dan Bloom on the similarities between Labour’s future jobs fund from 2009 and the “kickstart scheme” being announced by Rishi Sunak this afternoon.

Met police chief apologises to black athlete stopped and handcuffed

Turning away from the summer statement for a moment, Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has apologised to the black athlete Bianca Williams for the way she was handcuffed during a stop and search.

Giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, Dick said:

We apologised yesterday to Ms Williams and I apologise again for the distress this stop clearly caused her.

As PA Media reports, the commissioner said reviews of the evidence by two separate teams have found there was no apparent misconduct, but she explained a referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) because of “the level of public concern”. She said:

Yesterday two of my officers spoke on our behalf to Ms Williams, and I think all of us watching could empathise with somebody who is stopped in a vehicle, who has a young child in the back, who does not probably know what exactly is going on, and is subsequently found, together with her partner, not to be carrying anything illicit.

Dick said she has asked a senior officer to review the Met’s handcuffing practices to make sure it hasn’t become a “default”, and has set up an “oversight group” looking at the use of force. She added:

If there are lessons to be learned from it, we will learn them, and I’m looking at handcuffing as a specific issue.

Downing Street has just sent out its read-out from this morning’s cabinet, where Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, briefed ministers on what would be in the summer economic update. It is not at all revealing but, for the record, here it is anyway.

[The chancellor] said that we have moved through the first phase of the crisis where we supported closed sectors, businesses and families and the challenge now is to support the economy opening up. Crucially, this means protecting as many jobs as possible in the face of a very challenging outlook, with the OBR and Bank of England both predicting significant increases in unemployment.

The chancellor outlined that young people were particularly vulnerable because they are two and a half times more likely to work in the sectors that have been closed. The chancellor emphasised that we don’t want that generation left behind and that is what today’s economic update will focus upon.

The chancellor and the PM spoke about how today’s update comes on top of the furlough scheme which has protected 9m jobs across the United Kingdom and which is only half-way through.

The chancellor outlined the details of today’s plan for jobs to support, create and protect jobs, following on from the PM’s new deal speech last week. He spoke about how the government needs to work together to deliver the plan, for example, through encouraging businesses to participate in the kickstart scheme of subsidised jobs announced overnight. The PM emphasised the government’s commitment to delivering a green economic recovery.

Updated

Labour says it wants growth, not tax rises

Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, has used an overnight statement about the summer economic update to clarify that Labour is not proposing a wealth tax, or indeed any sort of tax increase, now.

The issue has arisen because, at the end of last week, Dodds said that the government should be considering the case of a wealth tax. She confirmed this again in weekend TV interviews, and on Monday Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said she was right to raise the idea. After the Dodds interviews on Sunday the Conservative party issued a critical press release, with co-chairman Amanda Milling saying:

Keir Starmer needs to come clean about his plan for painful new taxes on homes and savings. This tax raid on ordinary families is the same disastrous economic policy proposed by Jeremy Corbyn at the last election.

Milling issued another press release this morning, saying more or less exactly the same thing, only with an added reference to the Starmer LBC phone-in.

But Labour is saying it is emphatically not calling for tax increases now. This is from the statement Dodds issued overnight.

I say to the government, if it does increase taxes during the recovery, and cuts back on the public services we all rely on, this will damage demand and inhibit our recovery.

Labour is not calling for tax rises - we are calling for growth.

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is not expected to raise taxes now, or any time soon, and so in one respect Labour is just swiping at a straw man. But there will be suspicions that this also provides a clue into what Starmer’s long-term instincts are in relation to tax policy.

Paul Waugh at HuffPost wrote a good article on Monday looking at exactly what the Labour thinking is on this. And yesterday my colleague Polly Toynbee published an even more intriguing column, revealing that the Treasury is taking a close interest in an Institute for Fiscal Studies project looking at how a wealth tax could be made to work.

Updated

More than 100,000 people have now signed a petition started by the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group calling for an immediate inquiry into the coronavirus crisis. “People are still being infected and still dying every day,” Matt Fowler, a co-founder of the group said. “It is critically important that this is thoroughly investigated and stopped now.”

Petitions on the parliamentary website that attract more than 100,000 signatures are considered for a debate in parliament, but this is a change.org petition.

Updated

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

Peter Mandelson, the former Labour cabinet minister and former European trade commission, was also seeking the UK nomination for this post but, according to the Financial Times, he was told by Liz Truss, the international trade secretary earlier this week, that the government would not back him because he was “not a Brexiter”.

Liam Fox, the Tory former international trade secretary, is seen as having very little chance of actually getting the WTO job. One Tory former minister told the FT:

We had one candidate who might have been acceptable to Europe but was unacceptable to Downing Street, and another candidate acceptable to Number 10 but not to the EU.

Here is Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, on the plan to scale back free hospital parking for NHS staff. (See 9.34am.)

Alex Flynn, chief of staff at the BMA, had a better version of the “clamp carers” line in a tweet last night.

Government plan to scale back free hospital parking for NHS staff triggers protests

It sounds like we might be getting a U-turn of sorts today over hospital parking charges for NHS staff.

The i published a story last night saying that “NHS workers will have to start paying for parking at their own hospitals again as the Covid-19 crisis starts to ease”. The reporter, Hugo Gye, had a good source. He had actually read the reply to a Commons written question on this topic provided by the health minister Edward Argar, who said:

The provision of free parking for National Health Service staff by NHS trusts has not ended and nothing has changed since the announcement on 25 March. However, free parking for staff has only been made possible by support from local authorities and independent providers and this support cannot continue indefinitely.

We also want the NHS to deliver on the government’s commitment on free hospital parking for those in greatest need, the disabled, frequent outpatient attendees, parents who have sick children that are staying overnight in hospital and staff working nightshifts. Implementation of this commitment has been on hold whilst the NHS has been managing the Covid-19 pandemic and devoting its hospital parking capacity to staff and other facilities necessary for managing the pandemic.

The question was tabled by Labour’s Rachael Maskell.

Nicky Morgan, the Tory peer and former culture secretary, has been giving interviews this morning and, as the Telegraph’s Cat Neilan points out, she changed her line between interviews, suggesting there may have been a rethink.

In fact, the rethink had already started last night. This is what the Department of Health and Social Care told PA Media in response to the Independent story, and the statement stresses that NHS staff will continue to get free parking at hospitals “in certain circumstances”. A DHSC spokesperson said:

We want to make sure NHS staff can travel safely to work during the pandemic, which is why we requested that the NHS make parking free for staff, and that local authorities do the same with their car parks.

When the pandemic begins to ease, the NHS will continue to provide free hospital car parking to key patient groups and NHS staff in certain circumstances. We will provide further updates on this in due course.

This may just be a reference to staff working nightshifts getting free parking (a proposal confirmed by Argar), but the tone of the statement is slightly different from that adopted in the written answer.

Ian Blackford, the SNP’S leader at Westminster, says all hospital parking charges should be abolished.

Updated

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Matthew Weaver.

Today we will be focusing mostly on what is being described as the chancellor’s “summer economic update” - a quasi budget that will set out a range of coronavirus economic recovery measures. (Although technically not a budget, which means that it won’t be accompanied by the normal set of forecasts from the OBR, in spending terms it will dwarf a routine budget.)

Here are the key timings.

12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.

12.30pm: Rishi Sunak delivers the summer economic update.

The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has urged the government to guarantee a real living wage for the lowest paid workers.

Speaking on Sky News he challenged Rishi Sunak to show a genuine commitment to the Conservative’s promise to “level up” society. He said:

There are millions of people in the north of England on low paid insecure contracts. And I keep hearing that, if they have symptoms, or if they get a message from the test and trace system, they can’t go off work, because they know they won’t be paid.

Two million people in our country have no access to statutory sick pay. And for those who do it’s £95 a week. This virus has hit the poorest communities hardest because of the really poor nature of people’s work up and down the country. This is why I’m a bit worried about this statement today from a chancellor. I don’t hear proper measures to level up the country here. If it was really going to do that, he would say the people who’ve been out running the country for the last three months, ‘we’re going to make sure they all have a real living wage’. That is levelling up.

Burnham also warned that a stamp duty holiday would not tackle inequality.

He said: “I’m worried that we’re noticing another big political moment pass here from the chancellor, where we haven’t got substance behind this phrase ‘levelling up’.”

Updated

Boohoo to launch review

The online fashion retailer Boohoo has announced it will launch an independent review of its UK supply chain after recent allegations that some factories in Leicester that sell clothes to Boohoo pay workers below the minimum wage and failed to protect them from coronavirus.

Boohoo, which owns brands including PrettyLittleThing and Nasty Gal, said the review will be led by Alison Levitt QC, and said it would initially invest £10m towards “eradicating malpractice” in its supply chain.

The company said in a statement that the board was “shocked and appalled by the recent allegations” and was committed to working to rebuild the reputation of textile manufacturing in Leicester.

Updated

Greenpeace activists have replaced the destinations on the road signs around parliament to read “Green Recovery”.

The stunt was designed to highlight Greenpeace’s view that the government only has one option with its economic recovery package, and that much greater investment is needed to green the transport, energy, housing and waste sectors, create new green jobs and tackle the climate emergency.

It comes as the government is threatened with legal action over the expected lack of green measures in the summer statement.

On Tuesday, a letter threatening court action was sent to the prime minister and the chancellor by the pressure group Plan B, which successfully took the government to the appeal court this year over its green light for the expansion of Heathrow airport.

Sunak will set out £3bn of green spending, focusing on improving energy efficiency in homes and public buildings, in his summer statement on Wednesday. But the letter contrasts this sum with the billions committed to airlines and carmakers in the taxpayer-funded coronavirus recovery package, and funding for fossil fuels.

Updated

That report about hospital parking charges resuming for NHS staff appears to be causing unease in Tory ranks.

Labour has been highly critical of the plan - a sign that it may be raised by Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions.

Updated

Many of today’s papers lead on the chancellor’s jobs plan. But the I’s splash focuses on the end of free parking for NHS staff.

And the Telegraph leads on the stamp duty holiday.

Here are some of the other front pages:

Updated

Sunak to set out jobs plan and stamp duty holiday

Welcome to live coverage of the UK’s coronavirus crisis and the chancellor’s summer statement.

Rishi Sunak is set to put a job creation plan for under-25s at the centre of his statement, which is expected at about 12.30pm.

The £2bn scheme will fund six-month job placements for an estimated 350,000 18- to 24-year-olds.

Sunak is also reported to be considering a stamp duty holiday for properties under £500,000 to boost the housing market, as part of a package to tackle the economic impact of the coronavirus.

Richard Partington has a preview of these and other measures to look out for in the chancellor’s statement.

Updated

 

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