On Monday 20 April, HMRC launched the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme at 8am. By midnight that same day, we had received: 185,000 claims Covering 1,300,000 employees At a value of £1,500,000,000.
The UK HPI shows house price changes for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The February data shows: on average, house prices have fallen by 0.6% since January 2020 there has been an annual price rise of 1.1%, which makes the average property in the UK valued at £230,332.
Fraser of Allander Institute - April 21, 2020. Today we've received new labour market statistics from the ONS.
Today 22 April 2020 the UK parliament will meet with only 50 MP's in the chamber at Westminster and all the rest accessing by video conference. This article from the Constitution Unit sets out ideas on how matters might proceed.
This is one for the history books. The impact may be devastating on the economy.
UK businesses driving innovation and development will be helped through the coronavirus outbreak with a £1.25 billion government support package, the Chancellor announced today. Chancellor announces new £1.25 billion coronavirus package to protect firms driving innovation in UK package includes a £500 million investment fund for high-growth companies impacted by the crisis, made up of funding from government and the private sector SMEs focusing on research and development will also benefit from £750 million of grants and loans UK businesses driving innovation and development will be helped through the coronavirus outbreak with a £1.25 billion government support package, the Chancellor announced today.
Temporary regulations confirmed and extended to protect workers. Social distancing regulations introduced to slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed and extended to protect workers.
You can now claim online for a grant for 80% of your furloughed employees' salaries, up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee, per month, through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This scheme will be open until the end of June 2020.
Universal Credit claimants can now access British Sign Language interpreters as part of a free video relay service. The service can be used to help make a new claim or for those already claiming Universal Credit.
Support for the newly self-employed and firms suffering hardship to be paid in early May. Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop has confirmed that grant funding for the newly self-employed suffering hardship and SMEs in distress will be available in the coming days.
The economic impact of the efforts to tackle the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could see Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fall by around a third, according to a report by the Chief Economist. The latest State of the Economy report, published by the Scottish Government's Chief Economist Gary Gillespie, presents analysis showing that GDP in Scotland could fall by around 33% during the current period of social distancing, similar to estimates from UK and international bodies such as the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Further safeguard for those working and living in prisons amid COVID-19 outbreak. A number of short-term prisoners nearing the end of their time in custody are to be released early, under measures designed to help tackle the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Household claims for Universal Credit in Scotland have increased from an average of 20,000 per month in 2019 to over 110,000 between 1 March and 7 April, highlighting the impact the pandemic is having on people's finances. That’s why the Scottish Government, in partnership with the Citizens Advice network, is launching a new campaign to raise awareness of the financial support available to people.
More food deliveries through £70m Food Fund. More community food projects will receive funding to provide emergency free meals to those most in need during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The COVID-19 crisis has seen an unprecedented rise in scams across the whole of the UK and Highland Council Trading Standards is issuing a warning to local businesses about a new scam that has come to light, regarding business grants. This scam involves an unsolicited email informing the business that its business grant application has been processed and a payment to be made to you soon.
The Highland Council is ramping up the team responsible for processing small business grants to respond even more quickly and to as many applicants as possible. On Friday almost 4,000 applications had been received by Highland Council and 1000 of those have already been processed, to the value of over £12.8million.
Following the establishment of a dedicated Council team and system to manage the COVID-19 Business Grant scheme, the number of and value of grants to Highland businesses is increasing daily. On Friday 17 April alone, business grants were awarded to 233 businesses to the value of £2.84m which took the overall total to over 1000 businesses and total grants secured to over £12.8m.
The Transport Secretary has said today that he won't be booking a summer holiday anytime soon. What does this mean for your summer holiday? When asked about future travel on Radio 4's Today programme, Grant Shapps said; "I won't be booking a summer holiday at this point, let's put it that way." If you've got a summer holiday booked or are thinking of booking one, what does this mean for your holiday and what should you do? Emma Coulthurst, travel commentator from online travel price comparison site, TravelSupermarket, provides the following advice:- Whatever you do, don’t cancel.
Coronavirus lockdown to deliver large (but hopefully temporary) shock to the economy and public finances In addition to its impact on public health, the coronavirus outbreak will substantially raise public sector net borrowing and debt, primarily reflecting economic disruption. The Government's policy response will also have substantial direct budgetary costs, but the measures should help limit the long-term damage to the economy and public finances - the costs of inaction would certainly have been higher.
The Highland Council is advising the public that the Corran Ferry is not in operation due to a technical failure. On Saturday evening one of the MV Corran propulsion units failed and work is underway to source the part needed and get it fitted as soon as possible.
