Rishi Sunak Plans To Get People ‘Out And About’ After English Lockdown

(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said he is planning a range of measures to get people “out and about” and spending again after England’s second coronavirus lockdown.

Ministers are looking at how best to encourage consumers back into shops, bars and restaurants when restrictions are expected to ease on Dec. 2., Sunak said in an interview with Sky News. He declined to say if he would bring back the Eat Out to Help Out restaurant subsidy when he was asked if the program is in his plans.

The U.K. economy expanded the most on record in the third quarter, data released Thursday showed, with output surging 15.5% in the three months through September. But the rebound still leaves Britain’s recovery trailing behind the world’s major industrialized nations, with the economy almost 10% smaller than before the pandemic.

U.K. Economy’s Record Rebound Still Leaves it Behind Others (1)

The government’s Eat Out to Help Out program, which ran through most of August, saw participating restaurants and pubs offer people a 50% discount on meals worth as much as 10 pounds ($13) per person. The aim was to tempt people back out and to spend money on the high street after months of Covid-19 restrictions, although a study from the University of Warwick found it may have also hastened the spread of the virus.

Sunak was asked directly by Sky News whether he will consider reintroducing the scheme. “I don’t want to talk about specific measures, but more broadly I think it’s right when we finally exit this [lockdown] and hopefully next year with testing and maybe indeed vaccines as well, we’ll be able to start to look forward to getting back to normal,” he said.

“We want to get consumers spending again, people out and about, we’ll look at a range of things to see what the right interventions are at that time.”

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