Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine trials to start Thursday April 21, 2020 A potential coronavirus vaccine being developed at Oxford University will have its first trials on Thursday after receiving £20m in government funding. Health secretary Matt Hancock announced today that the government was funding the trial, along with another out of Imperial College which has been given £22.5m. Hancock said the two teams were “two of [...]
Furloughed hospitality workers could lose ‘up to 40 per cent’ of wages April 21, 2020 Businesses are seeking legal advice over the government’s job retention scheme amidst fears that millions of furloughed hospitality workers could be denied large chunks of their wages. The scheme – which sees the government pays 80 per cent of wages up to £2,500 a month to furloughed workers – was rolled out yesterday, with 185,000 [...]
Applications worth £1.5bn now made to coronavirus job retention scheme April 21, 2020 A further 45,000 businesses and 300,000 employees have registered for the government’s wage subsidy scheme, according to the Treasury. A Treasury spokesman said today that 185,000 businesses with 1.3m employees had applied for the job retention scheme as of midnight last night. The total amount this covers would be £1.5bn, however the spokesman said that [...]
Italy to relax lockdown restrictions from early May April 21, 2020 Italy will this week outline plans to lift its coronavirus lockdown, with some restrictions expected to be eased from 4 May. The country, which has been one of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, has been under lockdown since 9 March. Italy’s lockdown has seen most businesses close and people only allowed out of [...]
Downing Street stands by 100,000 daily coronavirus tests target April 21, 2020 Downing Street has stood by its target of administering 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of the month, despite having capacity to carry out less than half of that. With just nine days left in the month, there is testing capacity to carry out just 39,250 tests a day. Just 19,316 tests were [...]
More than £6bn of coronavirus grants given to English businesses April 21, 2020 More than £6bn of business grants have been distributed to English small and medium sized businesses through the government’s coronavirus grant schemes. A total of 491,725 grants, worth £6.11bn, have been distributed out of a pot of £12.3bn as of last night, translating into a 49.58 per cent delivery rate. Grants of £10,000 are available to [...]
Donald Trump suspends immigration over coronavirus April 21, 2020 US President Donald Trump has vowed to suspend all immigration into the US in the latest dramatic response to the world spread of coronavirus. The temporary move effectively delivers on a long-held Trump administration goal. But Trump said it was a necessary step to protect US jobs. The country has seen spiking unemployment claims, with [...]
Coronavirus: UK government borrowing could top £300bn, says think tank April 21, 2020 UK government borrowing could hit £300bn this year as tax receipts collapse and the Treasury pumps money into the economy to tackle the fallout from coronavirus, according to a new report. The £300bn figure, produced today by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) think tank, would be by far the biggest budget deficit since World [...]
Polling shows three-in-four people want post-coronavirus tax cuts April 20, 2020 Almost three-in-four people want to see tax cuts to reboot the economy after the coronavirus crisis, according to new polling. A poll by Survation/Adam Smith Institute showed there was overwhelming support, 72 per cent of people, for a reduction in taxes to “try and increase economic growth and jobs”, particularly among younger adults. Of those [...]
Ex-chancellor Philip Hammond warns business must be prepared for coronavirus lockdown exit plan April 20, 2020 Former chancellor Philip Hammond has warned that the government must make sure businesses are well prepared for a coronavirus lockdown exit plan. Hammond said it is “vital that business is ready for the green light” when restrictions are lifted in order to mitigate the risk of corporate collapses and job losses. “We don’t know whether [...]