Covid: Furlough extension prompts delay apology call in Wales

The chancellor's announcement that the furlough job support scheme will be extended until March has been welcomed in Wales amid complaints it should have come sooner.

Rishi Sunak said it will cover up to 80% of a wage up to £2,500 a month.

He told the Commons that UK ministers will review the policy in January.

Wales' Economy Minister Ken Skates said the Welsh Government had been calling "for some time" for furlough to be extended.

The availability of funding for businesses and staff who cannot work during Wales' current 17-day firebreak lockdown has caused a row between the Welsh and UK governments.

A less generous Job Support Scheme had been due to come into effect on 1 November, until the original Job Retention Scheme, known as furlough, was extended until December to cover the four-week lockdown which began in England on Thursday.

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford said it was not fair that the Treasury waited until England's lockdown was announced to extend furlough throughout the UK.

As part of the revised scheme, now extended to the end of March, anyone made redundant after 23 September can be rehired and put back on furlough.

This includes anyone laid off by a Welsh firm during the Wales-wide firebreak which began on 23 October, a week before the scheme was originally due to end.

Speaking at a Welsh Government coronavirus briefing, Mr Skates said there was a "necessity to support people for as long as it takes to get through the pandemic, so I would welcome the chancellor's announcement today".

"Of course I'll be digesting the detail of the announcement and implications for Wales, but... the greatest risk to the economy, to our wellbeing, our economic wellbeing, is in doing too little and too late."

Reacting to the announcement in the Commons, Pontypridd Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones claimed businesses in Wales had suffered because UK ministers had "blocked" Welsh ministers from using key job support schemes during the current lockdown in Wales.

Mr Sunak responded that "10,000 of her constituents" had had their jobs supported by the UK government furlough scheme.

Plaid Cymru's Treasury spokesperson, Ben Lake MP, welcomed the extension of furlough, but said the chancellor should have apologised for the "uncertainty that his initial refusal, and subsequent U-turn, had caused households and businesses".

Arguments about the availability of furlough support during lockdowns not including England had been fuelled by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday when he told Parliament: "If other parts of the UK decide to go into measures which require the furlough scheme then of course that is available to them - that applies not just now but in the future."

On Thursday, Mr Sunak said: "The furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the United Kingdom on behalf of all the people of the United Kingdom - wherever they live.

"That has been the case since March; it is the case now; and it will remain the case until next March."

The chancellor also confirmed the Welsh Government will be receiving £600m more funding as a result of additional spending in England - bringing the total during the pandemic to £5bn.

Paul Davies, who leads the Conservative group in the Senedd said furlough extension would be "very re-assuring for a lot of Welsh workers and that again just shows the UK government's commitment to Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom".

Simon James, managing director of Cardiff-based Atlantic Resource recruitment services, has seen a "very big influx" of people made redundant because the furlough scheme had been coming to end.

They were "preparing to do jobs that really they're not really wanting to do just to ensure they've got an income," he said.

Mr James said his firm's legal side had also had a "massive influx of clients requesting information on how to make people redundant".

Alex Cole has worked in hospitality for 16 years was put on furlough in March and made redundant about five weeks ago.

He is hoping to get a job at a new Cardiff city centre restaurant and bar on which building work is currently being finished.

Mr Cole said his line of work had been "shot again" by the current Wales-wide 17-day lockdown "which means my prospects - mine meaning millions of others within this industry - have been cut in half".

"Applying for jobs is hard, there are loads of people going for the same roles, with the same qualifications, the same expertise in what they do.

"It's tough times, it's worrying and stressful, but you have to carry on, stay positive, stay strong."