Firms cannot wait until budget for more Covid help, Rishi Sunak told
CBI calls for immediate 7.6bn injection from Treasury to help economy through lockdown
The UK's leading employers' organisation has warned Rishi Sunak that businesses running short of cash and resilience cannot afford to wait six weeks for the budget to secure more financial help from the government.
Tony Danker, the director-general of the CBI, called on the chancellor to extend the furlough scheme, defer VAT payments and resist the temptation to raise business taxes as a way of plugging the UK's record peacetime budget deficit.
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A 6bn extension of the furlough scheme - which subsidises the wages of temporarily laid-off workers - beyond its planned end in April to the end of June and further targeted support to protect jobs subsequently.
Lengthening repayment periods for existing VAT deferrals until June 2021 at the earliest and allow firms to defer VAT bills for the first quarter of 2021 for 12 months.
An extension of the business rates holiday for at least another three months to those UK firms forced to close under current restrictions and expanding relief to their supply chains.
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