After the Virus A plan for restoring growth by the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP and the Centre for Policy Studies (2020).
“Although the Covid-19 pandemic began as a public health emergency, it has swiftly developed into the most extraordinary economic crisis of our time.
The threat posed to people’s livelihoods is superseded only by the threat to lives themselves.
Because of its service-based economy, the UK is more exposed than most. The Bank of England has suggested that the decrease in output this year could be as high at 14%, the most severe for three centuries. The fall in GDP during March and April alone has already wiped out 18 years of growth. As a result, 2.5 million people could lose their jobs by late summer
Given the scale of the challenge, the Treasury’s response has been deeply impressive. The Chancellor acted decisively to deploy the most significant fiscal firepower since the Second World War with speed and scale. An elixir of job retention schemes, tax cuts and government-backed loans has saved businesses up and down the country
However, as effective as they have been, the purpose of the Government’s interventions to date has been to contain the damage, not to find a cure. Soon, the focus must shift from safeguarding the economy to rebuilding it…”
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