The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced a raft of new measures to support businesses and individuals during the next phase of the Covid crisis.

Sunak introduced the annnouncement by saying:

“As I’ve said throughout this crisis, I cannot save every business. I cannot save every job. No Chancellor could. But what we can and must do is deal with the real problems businesses and employees are facing now.

“In March, the problem was that we ordered businesses to close. In response, we paid people to stay at home and not work. Today, the problem is different.

“Many businesses are operating safely and viably, but they now face uncertainty and reduced demand over the winter months. What those businesses need is support to bring people back to work and protect as many viable jobs as we can.”

Sunak then gave details of a new Jobs Support Scheme from which the government will directly support the wages of people in work, giving businesses who face depressed demand the option of keeping employees in a job on shorter hours rather than making them redundant.

Employees must work at least a third of their normal hours and be paid for that work, as normal, by their employer.

The government, together with employers, will then increase those people’s wages covering two-thirds of the pay they have lost by reducing their working hours.

All small and medium sized businesses are eligible.

Larger businesses qualify “only when their turnover has fallen through the crisis”.

The new scheme will be open to employers across the United Kingdom, even if they have not previously used the furlough scheme and it will run for six months starting in November.

And employers retaining furloughed staff on shorter hours can claim both the Jobs Support Scheme and the Jobs Retention Bonus.

Bounce Back Loans can now be extended from six to ten years and businesses who are struggling can now choose to make interest-only payments.

Anyone in real trouble can apply to suspend repayments altogether for up to six months and the Chancellor said that no business taking up Pay As You Grow will see their credit rating affected as a result.

Other loan schemes are also affected with the Chancellor planning to extend the government guarantee for up to ten years, making it easier for lenders to give people more time to repay.

The deadline of all loan schemes is extended to the end of the year and there will be a new, successor loan programme, set to begin in January.

For businesses who have deferred their VAT payments,  those payments were to fall due in March but now the VAT bill can be paid over 11 smaller repayments, with no interest to pay.

And self-assessed income taxpayers who need extra help, can also now extend their outstanding tax bill over 12 months from next January.

Govenment guidance on the new Jobs Support Scheme is here.