Rishi Sunak gives Britons half-price meals, slashes VAT and cuts stamp duty in move to boost coronavirus-hit economy

Rishi Sunak gave everyone in Britain a discount voucher for half price meals at restaurants, pubs and cafes during August in an unprecedented move to boost the battered economy.

The Chancellor smashed conventions with “eat out to help out” plan to get crowds back into the nation’s hospitality sector and get Britons spending on food and entertainments.

He also slashed VAT from 20 per cent to just five per cent on leisure and nights out to inject £4 billion into the struggling sector.

And he announced a big cut in stamp duty for thousands of homebuyers from today until March 31 next year in a move to get the housing market moving.

Mr Sunak was warmly cheered by Tory MPs after his unveiled his string of surprises in a Commons statement that had Boris Johnson nodding and smiling at his side.

He also confirmed a string of job protection and creation measures costing over £5 billion – and unveiled a new scheme to train left-behind school leavers in new qualifications from engineering to IT.

Labour’s Anneliese Dodds said he was not doing enough – but in reality the Chancellor’s firework display of big spending announcements seemed to take the wind out of the Opposition’s sails.

It burnished Mr Sunak’s growing reputation as a potential future Premier. But he gave a possible hint of tax rises after the coronavirus crisis is over, which could stretch his political abilities.

Unveiling his biggest surprise, the discounts in pubs and restaurants, Mr Sunak said it was an untested experiment.

“The final measure I am announcing today has never been tried before in the UK,” he told goggle-eyed MPs. “This moment is unique. We need to be creative.

“So, 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.”

This Eat for Britain discount will be available Monday to Wednesday up to a maximum discount of £10 per head for everyone, including children. A family of four could save £40.

Unveiling the VAT cut for pubs he stressed that leisure and hospitality was as vital source of jobs for younger, less qualified people, women, Bame people and areas like coastal towns.

He hailed “the pubs, cafes, restaurants, hotels and B&Bs that bring life to our villages, towns and cities” and declared: “So the best jobs programme we can do is to restart these sectors and get our pubs, restaurants, cafes and B&Bs bustling again.”

The Chancellor paraded his caring side by vowing to intervene repeatedly with borrowed cash to save jobs: “Where problems emerge, we will confront them,” he declared. “Where support is justified, we will provide it. Where challenges arise, we will overcome them.”

But he also gave a flash of steel – and perhaps a signal of future tax hikes - by saying he will “deal with” the public finances after the coronavirus crisis. “Over the medium-term, we must, and we will, put our public finances back on a sustainable footing,” he vowed in a message to reassure the markets.

Mr Sunak painted himself as a pragmatic politician who had put aside ideology of left or right. “We entered this crisis unencumbered by dogma and we continue in this spirit, driven always by the simple desire to do what is right,” he said.

He made clear the furlough scheme will not be extended after October. To do so would give “false hope”, he claimed, because some of the jobs would cease to exist. “And the longer people are on furlough, the more likely it is their skills could fade, and they will find it harder to get new opportunities,” he said.

Mr Sunak gave a spoonful of sugar to sweeten the blow, by announcing a £1,000 bonus for employers who bring back furloughed staff at least until January. “Our message to business is clear: if you stand by your workers, we will stand by you.” He promised: “People need to know that although hardship lies ahead, no one will be left without hope,” he said.

In a statement rich in social messages as well as economics, the Chancellor spoke of the “nobility of work” and promised to prevent a “missing generation” of young people thrown on the scrapheap by Coronavirus. “I believe in the nobility of work,” he said.

He told the Commons: “Today, we act, with a plan for jobs. Our plan has a clear goal: to protect, support and create jobs. It will give businesses the confidence to retain and hire. To create jobs in every part of our country. To give young people a better start. To give people the opportunity of a fresh start.”

Using rhetoric usually associated with Labour, he asserted that everyone deserves the chance “to assert their own dignity in the world through good and secure work”.

And Mr Sunak explicitly rejected the idea that 1980s-style mass youth unemployment was “unavoidable”.

“Whilst unemployment is going to rise, we’re not just going to accept this as an unavoidable outcome. People need to know we will do whatever we can to give everyone the opportunity to assert their own dignity in the world through good and secure work.”

His words will be seen as a contrast from past Tory chancellors, including Norman Lamont who in 1991 said unemployment was “the price that we have had to pay to get inflation down. That price is well worth paying.”

Mr Sunak made clear that more big interventions will follow in the autumn Budget. “Our Plan for Jobs will not be the last action – it is merely the next - in our fight to recover and rebuild after coronavirus.”

The new help for school leavers is the fourth major intervention of the blueprint, coming alongside well-trailed plans for subsidised jobs, traineeships and a green growth package.

Costing £101 million, it will kick in when 18 and 19-year-olds arrive at the job centre having left school without the skills demanded by firms, such as basic English and maths or in IT.

If there are no jobs available, a personal coach may select them to study level 2 and 3 academic and vocational courses in engineering, construction, health and social care, carpentry and plumbing and Information Communication Technology (ICT).

The courses will begin in September at the start of the new academic year. Studies show level 2 and 3 courses are “high value” and deliver up to 11 per cent higher in wages.

At present school leavers of 18 and 19 get less financial support than those aged 16 and 17.

Other announcements include a £2 billion scheme named Kickstart, in which the Government will pay wages of hundreds of thousands of youngsters to provide a pool of trainees for firms, with the aim that many will be kept on as regular employees at the end.

The Chancellor will triple funding for traineeships and work academy placements, with a bigger army of job centre staff to groom youngsters for employment.

And there will be a £3 billion package to generate jobs in the green economy, including grants totalling £2 billion to tempt homeowners to commission better insulation or double glazing.

There was a warning from the director of the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies this morning that the Chancellor will have to transform from “Santa Claus Chancellor Sunak” into Scrooge at some point to raise the money to help pay for his largesse.

Some Conservative right-wingers also expressed nerves that spending was rising too quickly, amid independent estimates that this year’s deficit could reach an unprecedented £300 billion of extra borrowing.

The dangers of mass redundancies were underlined hours before the Chancellor stood up when the Unite union said 2,200 DHL workers involved in the production of Jaguar Land Rover’s vehicles have been told that they could lose their jobs.

The UK’s unemployment rate could also soar to 14.8%, with job losses comparable to the 1930s, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Among other job-creation measures announced ahead of the speech are a £111 million scheme for firms in England to get a £1,000 bonus if they offer unpaid traineeships.

Thousands of jobs have been cut as businesses struggled through lockdown, with Royal Mail, Centrica, easyJet and British Airways among those affected.

Mr Sunak also confirmed a £3 billion green package with grants for homeowners and public buildings to improve energy efficiency.

It includes £2 billion in grants for households to insulate their homes and make them more energy-efficient.

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Sunak slashes stamp duty and unveils eat out discounts- LIVE