Covid-19: Business Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Wood of Anfield
Main Page: Lord Wood of Anfield (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Wood of Anfield's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(4 years, 3 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy noble friend is tempting me to go back to my previous role on Brexit. Of course, we will approach the negotiations constructively. I am sure he will be delighted to know that our position has not changed. We will not agree to any of the EU’s demands to give up our rights as an independent state. We are committed to getting a deal by the end of the year and will not extend the transition period.
My Lords, as the Government try to navigate a gradual return to work for millions, I am sure the Minister will agree with the central importance of the need to dovetail the financial ambition of winding down the furlough scheme with the public health ambition to protect workers going back to their workplaces. In particular, I know there are worries that the Government will with one hand reduce support for furloughed workers sometime after the end of June and, with the other, demand workplace health and safety conditions that make a return to normal work impossible. I am thinking of establishments such as smaller cafés and restaurants and small entertainment venues. Can the Minister assure those businesses that the end of furloughing will be conducted in a co-ordinated, sector-specific and company-specific way, to ensure that some firms do not have a situation in which the Treasury expects a return to work while BEIS and the Health and Safety Executive make such a return impossible?
We have extended the scheme significantly to support firms through the transition out of lockdown. We are doing right by them and expect those firms to do right by their staff. As the economy gradually reopens, it is fair that firms begin to pick up some of the cost of their workers’ salaries, but we will of course want to do this in a specific and phased way to make sure that these businesses can manage to survive and trade their way back to success.