UK stocks rise as businesses promised extra £4.6bn in lockdown support – business live
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Despite calls for further business support (and quick), the chancellor Rishi Sunak has reportedly said that the budget in March will be an excellent opportunity to take stock and set out the next stage of support, according to Reuters.
The budget is set for 3 March.
British Chamber of Commerce boss Adam Marshall has criticised the government for failing to announce Covid restrictions and business support measures at the same time last night.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, he said:
This is a pattern that we have seen repeatedly whereby businesses find that their operations are going to be somehow further curtailed without having knowledge of the support that’s going to be there to help them through that period of restriction and difficulty.
It should be possible, I think, to announce both restrictions and support in tandem, because that in turn generates business confidence and means that phones aren’t ringing off the hook with worried businesses wondering whether they’ll be able to open and be whether they’ll be able to pay their people and their suppliers at the end of the month.
Read the original article at The Guardian