Chancellor Rishi Sunak Reveals Massive Boost to UK Economy

Chancellor Sunak said that Britons eating out will get discounted food, house buyers will pay less stamp duty, and companies will get bonuses for retaining workers under his plans to kickstart the UK economy.

In his summer economic update to the House of Commons today, Rishi Sunak warned the UK is facing “profound economic challenges” as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Chancellor vowed to turn the UK’s national recovery “into millions of stories of personal renewal” as he unveiled a £30bn package of measures to MPs.

These packages include:

• a £1,000 bonus for each worker that companies bring back from furlough and employ through to January next year;
• a “kickstart scheme” to directly pay firms to create jobs for 16 to 24-year-olds;
• cash for businesses to take on trainees and apprentices;
• an eight-month temporary cut in stamp duty, with no charge on property transactions below £500,000;
• a cut in VAT on food, accommodation and attractions from 20% to 5% until 12 January;
• an “Eat Out to Help Out” discount of up to £10 per head to get Britons back to restaurants, cafes and pubs;

• Further details of the scheme are expected to be announced in the coming days.

  The voucher is the first of its kind in the UK, with Mr. Sunak telling the Commons: “This moment is unique. We need to be creative.”

  He added: “To get customers back into restaurants, cafes and pubs, and protect the 1.8 million people who work in them, I can announce today that, for the month of August, we will give everyone in the country an Eat Out to Help Out discount.”

After announcing what he dubbed a “plan for jobs”, Mr Sunak told the Commons: “We will not be defined by this crisis, but by our response to it.

“It is an unambiguous choice to make this moment meaningful for our country in a way that transcends the frustration and loss of recent months.

“It is a plan to turn our national recovery into millions of stories of personal renewal.”