Will furlough be extended past 30 April 2021?

It now looks as though Chancellor Rishi Sunak might be extending his much-praised furlough scheme when he presents the Budget next week.

That will be so welcome for the employees on furlough, and I estimate there are around 33,000 of them in Gloucestershire.

Sadly, I believe many of these furloughed workers are young people in the hospitality industry who will be in a desperate search for jobs when this potential new extension ends - probably in the summer.

It may be longer than that with the government paying most of furloughed employees - even until Christmas perhaps.

While I commend this extension, furlough must now be made to work harder rather than just paying out wages with no commitment from employees.

So, I think the government needs to look at a proper programme of compulsory re-training to go hand in glove with these pay-outs. 

We have to face the fact that many of these furloughed workers are in lower skilled occupations.

Many here in the county are working in hospitality and we must encourage them to develop their skills through more training.

At the same time, there are workers in their fifties on furlough who need to be helped into new jobs through re-training.

Some will just not be able to go back to their old jobs, and here in Gloucestershire there are going to be major new opportunities in the cyber and digital sectors.

And surely, the furlough scheme needs to be extended to the self-employed.

I believe they have been badly excluded with many facing real financial hardship.

This is shameful when you consider that the self-employed are contributing more and more taxes to the Treasury.

I think that the self-employed, at the very least, should be able to furlough themselves on the same terms as employees.