Category: Business News

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Leisure facilities and beauty services in England will be allowed to reopen over the coming weeks, the government has announced.

Pools, gyms, nail bars and tattooists will be able to open their doors again, and team sports – starting with cricket – will be allowed to resume.

Announcing the changes at a briefing at No 10, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden urged people to “work out to help out”.

Outdoor performances will also be able to resume with limited audiences.

A further 85 deaths have been announced for the 24 hours up to 17:00 BST on 8 July, taking the UK coronavirus deaths total to 44,602.

Mr Dowden said “all the data” was continuing to “move in the right direction” despite the reopening of pubs and restaurants last weekend.

He said normal life was “slowly returning” and that this was an important milestone for the country’s performers and artists, who had been “waiting in the wings since March”.

The public should “do their bit” by buying tickets and supporting galleries and other venues, he said, adding: “I’m really urging people to get out there and to play their part: buy the tickets for outdoor plays and musical recitals, get to your local gallery and support your local businesses.”

But the culture secretary said: “All of these measures are conditional and are reversible”, and warned the government wouldn’t hesitate to impose local lockdowns if cases started to spike.

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What will reopen when?

• Outdoor pools will be able to re-open from 11 July

• Indoor gyms, swimming pools and sports facilities can re-open from 25 July

• Grassroots sport will be able to return from this coming weekend, beginning with cricket

• Outdoor theatres will be able to start up from Saturday

• Singing and the playing of brass and wind instruments will be allowed in professional environments and Mr Dowden said specific scientific studies on the risks had been commissioned.

• Small pilots of indoor performances, with socially distanced audiences, will also take place to help work out the best way for them to restart
• From 13 July, beauticians, tattooists, spas, tanning salons and other close-contact services can reopen “subject to some restrictions on particularly high-risk services”

Guidance for the reopening of sports facilities, has been published, including cleaning regimes, social distancing and protection for staff.

Measures include limiting the number of people using a facility at one time, reducing class sizes and spacing out equipment. Face coverings will not be mandatory in gyms.

Small numbers of supporters will be able to watch outdoor sports, provided social distancing measures are followed.

The government said a team led by deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam had been visiting sports sites to see the sector’s preparations to reopen safely.

When put to him that the restrictions involved in reopening gyms and swimming pools would make exercise “less fun”, Mr Dowden said people would get used to the new measures.

He said: “The judgment we’ve taken with this [pubs] and swimming pools and elsewhere is it is better to reopen with those restrictions than not reopen at all.”

Actors union Equity welcomed the announcement but called for further protection for venues, while Julian Bird, chief executive of the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre, said more clarity was needed regarding indoor performances.

The announcements follow the government’s pledge of £1.57bn to support the arts industry.

Vanita Parti, chief executive of walk-in beauty chain Blink Brow Bar, said that at first she had welcomed the news but then she received an email from the British Beauty Council telling her no treatments to the face would be allowed.

She said: “I’m furious.

“We can’t reopen. Trimming a man’s beard is acceptable, but not doing a woman’s eyebrows, when both are wearing masks. This will kill so many businesses.”

In other developments:

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Energy companies have criticised proposals by the industry’s regulator to cut customers’ bills and spend more on green investments.

Under Ofgem’s plans, households could see their bills cut by £20 a year while firms spend £25bn over five years to invest in the UK’s energy network.

Ofgem said it wanted “a greener, fairer energy system for consumers”.

However, National Grid, SSE and Scottish Power all said that the regulator’s plans were flawed.

‘Driving improvements’

The energy regulator sets out price controls which dictate how much money gas and electricity companies can earn, while allowing them sufficient scope to fund new investment from customers’ bills.

Under its latest proposals, which run from 2021 to 2026, they will be allowed to spend £25bn on improving gas and electricity networks and recoup this cost from customers.

Some £3bn will be used to make the electricity network more environmentally friendly, while more than £1bn will go towards green energy research and reducing the networks’ own impact on the environment.

In order to reduce the cost to consumers, Ofgem says, the return energy firms will be allowed to make from their investments will be nearly halved.

The regulator said this would mean that “less of consumers’ money goes towards network companies’ profits, and more towards driving network improvements”.

Ofgem estimated that cutting returns would save more than £3.3bn over the next five years, which should cut household bills by about £20 a year.

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The regulator added that investing in the energy network of the UK was low-risk and should be an attractive option to investors.

“Strong evidence from water regulation and Ofgem’s offshore transmission regime shows that investors will accept lower returns and continue to invest robustly in the sector,” it said.

Ofgem also said it would provide firms with additional funding for green projects from its own coffers, with £10bn worth of such schemes already under consideration.

‘Significant controversy’

Citizens Advice said the move could put an end to energy firms “overcharging energy customers by billions of pounds”.

“Ofgem has struck the right balance between shareholder returns and value for money for energy customers, while making sure networks can continue to attract investment,” said Dame Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice.

Uswitch.com., the comparison website, also welcomed the move.

“The amount of profit that network companies have been allowed to make in recent years has been a matter of significant controversy, given our energy suppliers have to pass on these charges to our bills.”

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However, National Grid said it was “extremely disappointed” with the plans.

“This proposal leaves us concerned as to our ability to deliver resilient and reliable networks, and jeopardises the delivery of the energy transition and the green recovery.”

‘Half-baked plan’

Energy firm SSE said the proposal was likely to be challenged through the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

“Ofgem’s first pass at a settlement resembles a worrying return to austerity,” Rob McDonald, the managing director of transmission at SSE, said.

“At present the draft settlement does not strike the right balance for all stakeholders and without significant changes during the consultation period, there is a real risk that the critical investment in Britain’s electricity networks will be unnecessarily slowed down by an appeal process via the CMA, which is not in any stakeholders’ interests.”

Scottish Power called Ofgem’s plans “a massive missed opportunity”.

“Instead of investing more in creating green jobs and skilled apprenticeships in every community, at a time when the UK needs them most, this is a short-sighted return to austerity politics.

“Nobody benefits from this half-baked plan. It’s bad for jobs, bad for apprenticeships, bad for training and bad for the UK supply chain.

“Net Zero can be an accelerator of the economic recovery, but only if private companies are given the right conditions for investment. Slamming the door in investors’ faces by offering one of the lowest rates of return of any developed country traps the UK in an economic cul-de-sac.”

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Two of the UK’s biggest High Street retailers, John Lewis and Boots, have announced 5,300 job cuts.

Boots has said 4,000 jobs will go, while John Lewis is shutting down eight stores, putting 1,300 jobs at risk.

The moves come amid warnings that new economic support from Chancellor Rishi Sunak will not be enough to stop millions of workers losing their jobs.

Mr Sunak admitted that he would not be able to protect “every single job” as the UK enters a “severe recession”.

Boots is consulting on plans to restructure head office and store teams and shut 48 Boots Opticians stores. It has not yet given details of which stores it is closing.

John Lewis said department stores in Birmingham and Watford will not reopen as the coronavirus lockdown eases. It also plans to shut down its At Home stores in Croydon, Newbury, Swindon and Tamworth and travel sites at Heathrow airport and London St Pancras.

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The announcements come a day after Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a series of measures aimed at saving jobs, including a one-off £1,000 payment to employers for every furloughed employee retained to the end of January 2021.

The managing director of Boots UK, Sebastian James, described the latest cuts as “decisive actions to accelerate our transformation plan”.

John Lewis says some of its stores were in trouble before the virus struck, while Boots already had plans for a shake-up.

The crisis has forced them to speed up efforts to deal with the rise of internet shopping.

And just now they face the phasing out of the government-supported furlough scheme, starting next month.

One by one, retailers are revealing how many staff they will bring back into stores as the job subsidy is withdrawn.

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‘Uncertain economic outlook’

Most Boots outlets remained open throughout the lockdown to provide pharmacy and healthcare services, but the firm said footfall had “dramatically reduced”.

The firm said sales in the third quarter had decreased almost 50% at Boots UK and 70% at Boots Opticians.

“Restrictions are beginning to lift, but with an uncertain economic outlook, it is anticipated that the High Street will take considerable time to recover.”

Boots said last year that it was reviewing the size of its UK operations with the possibility that up to 200 stores could be closed.

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John Lewis said the eight stores affected were already “financially challenged” even before the pandemic struck.

However, Covid-19 had caused customers to move more quickly towards online shopping and away from stores.

John Lewis Partnership chairwoman Sharon White said: “Closing a shop is always incredibly difficult and today’s announcement will come as very sad news to customers and partners.

“However, we believe closures are necessary to help us secure the sustainability of the partnership – and continue to meet the needs of our customers, however and wherever they want to shop.”

Ms White said John Lewis would do everything it could to keep on as many people as possible.

John Lewis had warned in March it could close shops as a plunge in profits forced it to cut staff bonuses to their lowest level in almost 70 years.

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Former John Lewis boss Andy Street, now mayor of the West Midlands, said the closure of the chain’s flagship Birmingham store was “deeply disappointing”.

“At this stage the closure is only a proposal, and one which I believe risks being a dreadful mistake,” he tweeted.

He added that his belief in its potential was “unwavering” and that he would be making the case for it to stay open.

The planned closure of John Lewis’s Watford store has prompted a petition to save it, which has been signed by 4,400 people so far.

Other John Lewis customers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations.

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John Lewis and Boots are the latest in a long line of companies to have made cuts during the pandemic. Other lay-offs announced include:

• Up to 5,000 job cuts at Upper Crust owner SSP Group
• Up to 12,000 jobs at British Airways
• Up to 700 jobs at Harrods
• About 600 workers at shirtmaker TM Lewin
• 1,900 jobs at Café Rouge-owner Casual Dining Group
• 1,000 jobs at Pret A Manger
• 1,700 UK jobs at plane-maker Airbus
• 1,300 crew and 727 pilots at EasyJet
• 550 jobs are going at Daily Mirror publisher Reach

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‘Jobs loss tsunami’

Unions and analysts have warned that the virus could mean millions of people end up out of work, warning that government incentives to save jobs were not large enough to persuade bosses to keep workers.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, said: “With no modification to the jobs retention scheme, that dreaded October cliff-edge for businesses and workers has now been set in stone.

“Our fear is the summer jobs loss tsunami we have been pleading with the government to avoid will now surely only gather pace.”

Vivienne King, chief executive at Revo, which represents the retail property sector, warned that three million retail jobs remained in jeopardy unless the government undertook “a fundamental review of business rates and direct financial support to underwrite rents”.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak himself told BBC Breakfast: “Is unemployment going to rise, are people going to lose their jobs? Yes, and the scale of this is significant.

“We are entering one of the most severe recessions this country has ever seen. That is of course going to have a significant impact on unemployment and on job losses.”

Lucy Powell, shadow minister for business and consumers, said the job cuts were “deeply worrying news for staff at John Lewis and Boots” and described Mr Sunak’s statement as “a missed opportunity to protect jobs with properly targeted support for the businesses and people that need it”.

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Are you a Boots or a John Lewis employee whose job is at risk? Email us at .

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

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Taxpayers face a day of reckoning when the government’s massive coronvavirus support measures have to be paid off, experts warn.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies think tank said the economy will remain in a “support and recovery” phase for some time, but higher taxes are inevitable.

It was revealed on Wednesday that the cost of the chancellor’s economic support measures had risen to £190bn.

The IFS predicts government borrowing will surge to about £350bn this year.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s summer statement included another £30bn of measures to support the economy through its emergence from lockdown.

It means the cost of the crisis has risen by more than 40% since last month, when the government’s spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, estimated it at £133bn.

On Thursday, in its analysis of the latest measures, the IFS said it expects further spending support in the Autumn Budget, perhaps through targeted tax cuts.

However, IFS director Paul Johnson said: “Let’s hold in the back of our minds that a reckoning, in the form of higher taxes, will come eventually.

“This is no normal recession. It’s the deepest in history.”

The IFS said annual borrowing as a share of the economy was on course to be its highest outside wartime in more than 300 years.

In March, the government forecast a deficit of about £50bn to £60bn this year. The IFS said it could now hit about £350bn, although the think tank added that given the economic fragilities there was huge uncertainty around that figure.

Wednesday’s additional spending announced by Mr Sunak is worth nearly £3,000 for every person in the UK – and more than the entire planned health budget for 2020-21.

There are some things no chancellor can prepare for – such as what to do if your economy wipes out 18 years’ gains in two months of lockdown.

His solution was to temporarily deep freeze the economy, and pump money into crisis response. And the thawing process needs more funds, to prevent long term damage.

Now economists are talking about a deficit, a shortfall of way more than the £300bn previously expected. It’s equivalent to a bigger slice of the economy than at any time since the Second World War.

And it could get bigger; if more is needed to support the recovery – or in the event of a severe second wave.

But it’s a cost worth bearing if it carries the economy through a devastating crisis, safeguard the damage to output and jobs – and ensure taxes get paid.

For at some point, there will have to be a discussion about how we pay this back.

The government is currently borrowing record amounts on the financial markets to plug the gap – but that may not be enough. There may have to be tax hikes, possibly less generous rises in pensions.

But it may be a while until the economy is robust enough to bear that.

Of the policy measures announced in Wednesday’s summer statement, the biggest was the plan to pay employers £1,000 for every furloughed worker they retain past January. The total bill could rise as high as £9.4bn, but only if every furloughed worker keeps their job.

But Mr Johnson said there was a “value for money issue” about the scheme.

“A lot, probably a majority, of the job retention bonus money will go in respect of jobs that would have been, indeed already have been, returned from furlough anyway,” he said. And he said much of the planned cuts in VAT and stamp duty “will be deadweight”.

Businessman Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers, also questioned if the job retention bonus was money well spent, as he thought some firms would only retain staff until they get the cash.

“Firms will either want their staff back, or they won’t. I just feel some employers will take advantage of this scheme,” he told the BBC.

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Meanwhile, Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank, said the financial cost of the crisis, at £190bn so far, was “approaching the amount we spend on the day-to-day running of our NHS, schools and colleges each year”.

He welcomed the focus on supporting young people and sectors most affected by lockdown, but added: “The scale of support… risks falling short of what will be required. The chancellor is taking quite a gamble on the strength of the recovery in the months ahead.”

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United Airlines says up to 36,000 of its workers could be furloughed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That amounts to almost half of the company’s total US-based frontline workforce.

“Throughout this crisis, we have been honest and direct with you about our need to right-size our workforce to match travel demand,” it said.

The carrier said it expects capacity for this month to be down 75% compared to July last year.

The company also said that not everyone who receives a warning letter will definitely be furloughed, with the final number depending on whether trading conditions improve and how many workers accept offers of redundancy and temporary leave.

“Our primary goal throughout this crisis has been to ensure United – and the jobs it supports – are here when customers are flying again,” United Airlines said in a statement to employees.

In response to the announcement the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union said: “The United Airlines projected furlough numbers are a gut punch, but they are also the most honest assessment we’ve seen on the state of the industry.”

The US government has offered $50bn (£40bn) to support the airline industry which has agreed to not lay off staff or cut pay until 30 September.

United Airlines is receiving $5bn of those funds and won’t make any cutbacks until 1 October, it said.

Pilar Wolfsteller, Americas Air Transport Editor at FlightGlobal, told the BBC that United’s announcement is an indicator of the aviation industry’s post-coronavirus future.

“It is the first of the major US airlines to come out and clearly say ‘we are going to be a much smaller airline after all of this is over’.”

“Now we’ve got to see what the other airlines will do but we’re expecting the industry as a whole is going to shrink and it’s probably going to be about a third smaller than it was coming into this crisis,” she added.

Last week, American Airlines said it could have 20,000 more front-line workers than it needs to operate, but that not all of them would be furloughed in October.

Airlines globally are in the same situation, with thousands of jobs under threat across the industry.

“We can expect that this crisis will have a long shadow,” said Alexandre de Juniac, director general of the airline trade group AITA. It expects global airlines to lose as much as $84bn this year.

Although airports and airlines have introduced new social distancing measure such as the wearing of masks on flights, many people are still nervous about flying.

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Public spending on the battle against coronavirus has risen to nearly £190bn, according to figures released by the Treasury.

The total was reached after the chancellor announced a £30bn package to combat the crisis in his summer statement on Wednesday.

Reaction was mixed from business groups, with several backing Rishi Sunak’s priority of saving jobs.

But some industries in crisis such as aviation said they had been “ignored”.

And politicians in Leicester, where many businesses remain shut on government orders to control a local outbreak, responded angrily to the “brutal” lack of extra help for their city.

Direct spending on the crisis, excluding the latest measures, has risen to £158.7bn, Rishi Sunak revealed.

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With the announcement of an additional £30bn, the total is nearly £3,000 for every person in the UK – and more than the entire planned health budget for 2020-21.

It means the cost of the crisis has risen by more than 40% since last month, when the government’s spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, estimated it at £133bn.

This extra spending is likely to push the gap between what the government spends and what it raises in taxes – the deficit – above the OBR’s latest estimate of around £300bn, according to the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank.

Before the coronavirus outbreak began, the government was expecting a deficit of £55bn.

‘Skated over’

The extra public spending figure includes £15bn to buy personal protective equipment such as gloves and masks.

It also includes £10bn for the testing and tracing of infected persons, taking the total extra spending on health services to £32bn.

“There is a huge public services additional spending that we didn’t really know about that was announced (on Wednesday). It was kind of skated over, but £15bn for PPE for frontline workers is an enormous sum,” Paul Johnson, director of the IFS, told the BBC.

He said the chancellor’s strategy is to spend money now, to minimise long-term damage to the economy, which would ultimately cause more harm overall.

“I don’t think the chancellor is desperately worried about the size of the deficit this year. What will concern him is the size of the deficit the year after, and the year after, and the year after that,” he said.

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Politicians in Leicester said the local economy was facing severe damage, after the city was placed under the UK’s first local lockdown, with no date announced for its reopening.

The city’s mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, told the BBC he was “absolutely furious” that expected help had not materialised, describing the lack of support as “brutal”.

Labour’s shadow social care minister Liz Kendall, who is MP for Leicester West, said people in the city had made “huge sacrifices” and were “desperate”.

“I know it costs money and we all have to pay for it somehow but it will cost even more money if we don’t keep our businesses open and we don’t keep people in jobs. So I think there’s a moral issue here – if we are in lockdown for longer we need help for longer,” she said.

There are some things no Chancellor can prepare for – such as what to do if your economy wipes out 18 years’ gains in two months of lockdown.

His solution was to temporarily deep freeze the economy, and pump money into crisis response. And the thawing process needs more funds, to prevent long term damage.

Now economists are talking about a deficit, a shortfall of way more than the £300bn previously expected. It’s equivalent to a bigger slice of the economy than at any time since the Second World War.

And it could get bigger; if more is needed to support the recovery – or in the event of a severe second wave.

But it’s a cost worth bearing if it carries the economy through a devastating crisis, safeguard the damage to output and jobs – and ensure taxes get paid.

For at some point, there will have to be a discussion about how we pay this back.

The government is currently borrowing record amounts on the financial markets to plug the gap – but that may not be enough. There may have to be tax hikes, possibly less generous rises in pensions.

But it may be a while until the economy is robust enough to bear that.

In a letter released by Ms Kendall, Business Minister Nadim Zahawi said there were “no plans” to extend any of the support schemes such as furlough and claimed the city council had spent only £500,000 of a £3.5m discretionary grant it had received from government.

A government spokesperson said that “the circumstances of individual lockdowns will continue to be carefully assessed before appropriate action is taken”.

Meanwhile, Airlines UK also criticised the decision not to extend the furlough scheme beyond October, saying flights were likely to continue to be restricted during the winter.

It would mean more jobs lost in addition to the tens of thousands of redundancies already announced “if the government continues to ignore aviation”, a spokesman for the trade body said.

Other large expenditures during the coronavirus crisis include £4.7bn for local government, £5.3bn for public transport, and £4.1bn for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

However, the impact of the coronavirus on the public finances remains highly uncertain.

Of the policy measures announced in the summer statement, the biggest was the plan to pay employers £1,000 for every furloughed worker they retain past January. The total bill could rise as high as £9.4bn, but only if every furloughed worker keeps their job.

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Like many young teenagers, Jonathan Peniket enjoyed buying random player “packs” to build up his team on the Fifa football video game.

But when his mum was diagnosed with cancer, his spending on these packs, or “loot boxes”, became – as he sees it – an addiction he couldn’t control.

The House of Lords Gambling Committee is calling for loot boxes, which are not currently considered to be gambling, to be regulated urgently.

“I have loved video games since I was a child. I remember waking up early on weekends and heading straight downstairs to play Fifa 05 with the sound off so that I wouldn’t wake my parents,” says Jonathan.

“Now 21, I am fortunate to have made some of my closest friends online, and I think video games can be great for any child.

“I stress this before saying that I feel compelled to tell my story of how ‘loot box gambling’ led to one of the worst experiences of my life.

“In 2009, EA Sports launched the Ultimate Team game mode in their Fifa series. It’s like a huge online football trading card game, and users can then add these players to their teams.

“Better players give you an advantage, and there is a virtual currency and market where these cards are traded. You can buy packs containing a random selection of cards.

‘Gambling’

“I distinctly remember back in 2012, when I first asked my parents if I could use my money to buy packs, and my frustration when my dad said the packs were “gambling”, before finally agreeing.

“The idea that it was gambling seemed ridiculous to me at the time. I understood that the chances of ‘packing’ my favourite players were low.

“I spent the money, opened my packs, got lucky a couple of times, and tried to be positive, despite being left feeling slightly underwhelmed. ‘If I could just spend another £15…’, I thought.

“Four years followed of spending more and more money on player packs – each time seeking that buzz that would only occasionally come.

“As time went on, I was becoming increasingly secretive about it. I would buy a voucher from a High Street shop and hide it in my room, so my parents wouldn’t find out how much I was spending.

“At the time, I had nothing else I would rather spend my money on. I thought each time that this time would be one where I got lucky.

“When I was 17, I got my first debit card, and suddenly the decision to spend money on the game became instant, just a click of a button away, with no need to buy the vouchers and worry that my parents would find them.

“2017 was the year that changed everything in my life. I was completing my last year of A-levels, with vague plans to go to university. In September my mum was diagnosed with cancer.

“Everything became about waiting until it would all just be a memory. Waiting until the day that my mum’s treatment would be over, when I’d have finished my exams and we could all appreciate normal life again.

“I searched for any way to cope. The buzz of opening packs offered me an escape.

‘The money ran out’

“Any rational sense of moderation and the value of money that my parents and grandparents had saved for my future began to subside. I felt like I needed the money now, to cope, and that in years to come my future self would somehow understand.

“I was spending £30 at a time, then £40, then £50. By the time my card began to block my transactions, I was throwing £80 into the game four or five times a night.

“A few weeks before my exams, after days of watching people open packs on YouTube whilst my parents thought I was upstairs revising, the moment came when the money ran out.

“Money that my parents and grandparents had worked for, that had been given to me as savings for my future. I had blown almost £3,000.

“I accept responsibility for what happened. The decisions I made to spend that money were made by me. My parents were heartbroken when they found out and read through the bank statements.

‘Addicted to the buzz’

“Looking back at what happened, one of the things that sticks out to me is how my spending was going on without any of my family knowing.

“We had family rules with restrictions on gaming time, so there was no lack of parental regulation, and I frequently told my concerned parents that I was not addicted to video games themselves.

“I stand by that now, but I was addicted to the buzz of chance when I bought packs. I agree now with what my Dad said that so angered me back in 2012: video game packs and loot boxes [a general term for in-game purchases involving chance] are a form of gambling.

“With the House of Lords Gambling Committee calling for randomised reward purchases like these to be urgently regulated under gambling laws, I want to do what I can to educate and protect other people from going through an experience like mine.

“I owe it to my teenage self, and to others who will regret spending money on loot boxes, to do what I can to end what is utter exploitation.”

EA’s response

The makers of Fifa, EA Sports, deny any aspect of Fifa constitutes gambling and agree with the assessment made by the Gambling Commission that loot boxes are not gambling.

They say Fifa Ultimate Team can be played without spending any money and that purchases are entirely optional.

They go on to say the well-being of players is paramount – and all their games, including Fifa, have the ability to use parental controls provided by gaming platforms to cap or prohibit spend.

Fifa was approached for comment, but has not yet responded.

There will be more on this story on Nihal Arthanayake on BBC Radio 5 Live from 13:00 or catch up afterwards on BBC Sounds.

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Ryanair cabin crew are to accept a temporary pay cut over four years to keep their jobs.

The development comes a week after Ryanair pilots voted for a pay cut to save hundreds of jobs.

Airlines throughout the world have been struggling to remain viable after coronavirus travel restrictions grounded many flights.

In the US, United Airlines said on Wednesday it was taking action to reduce its workforce.

In May, Ryanair said it was set to cut 3,000 jobs across Europe, or 15% of its workforce.

But on Wednesday, the airline said it had cut a deal with the Unite union so that UK cabin crew jobs would be safeguarded.

‘Constructive’ approach

Ryanair did not put a figure on how many cabin crew jobs had been under threat.

The airline’s chief executive, Eddie Wilson, said the deal would save hundreds of cabin crew jobs in the UK.

“The result of the negotiations with Unite demonstrates the commitment from our cabin crew and their unions in the UK to work with Ryanair as we work our way through this crisis over the next number of years,” Mr Wilson said.

The Unite union said the deal would ultimately safeguard a total of 1,800 UK cabin crew jobs.

Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: “Unite has been contending with an incredibly difficult set of circumstances in the aviation sector.

“The agreement with Ryanair shows that the company has taken a more constructive and less damaging approach to dealing with the issues than many of its competitor airlines.”

Jobs deal

Unite said cabin crew had voted to accept a temporary pay cut of 5% for the lowest paid, 7.5% for others, and 10% for the highest paid.

Pay cuts will be reversed in two tranches in 2023 and 2024, or earlier if Ryanair returns to pre-Covid-19 levels of business sooner, Unite said.

Last week Balpa said Ryanair pilots had voted to accept temporary pay cuts after the May announcement that 330 pilot jobs could go.

Pilots said they would accept a 20% pay cut to save 260 of those jobs, with most of the rest “linked to possible base closures”.

US hit

Airlines around the world have been struggling to keep up with costs while operating a severely limited number of flights.

On Wednesday, US giant United Airlines warned 36,000 staff that they could face furloughing or job cuts starting from 1 October.

The airline cannot make redundancies before then, under the terms of support it has received from the US government.

But it has said it expects travel demand to remain low for the foreseeable future.

The potential cuts would fall on US staff. The company employed about 96,000 people globally at the end of last year.

United Airlines said the final number of job cuts and people put on furlough remains up in the air. It is also seeking for people to retire voluntarily.

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Chancellor Rishi Sunak is to cut VAT on hospitality as part of a £30bn plan to prevent mass unemployment as the economy is hit by coronavirus.

The government will also pay firms a £1,000 bonus for every staff member kept on for three months when the furlough scheme ends in October.

And Mr Sunak announced a scheme to give 50% off to people dining out in August.

The chancellor warned “hardship lies ahead”, but vowed no-one will be left “without hope”, in a statement to MPs.

He told MPs he will cut VAT on food, accommodation and attractions from 20% to 5% from next Wednesday.

It came as the latest death toll for coronavirus, in all settings, increased by 126 to 44,517.

Labour said the chancellor’s plans did not go far enough and the job retention money should be better targeted to prevent it going to firms that were already planning to bring staff back.

‘False hope’

“We were promised a ‘New Deal’, but what we got was a ‘Meal Deal’,” the party added.

Mr Sunak rejected calls to extend the furlough scheme beyond October, saying it would give people “false hope” that they will have a job to return to, and “the longer people are on furlough, the more likely it is their skills could fade”.

He conceded that jobs would be lost but said he would “never accept unemployment as an inevitable outcome” of the pandemic.

Details of how the package will be paid for – through borrowing and possible tax rises – are likely to be unveiled in the chancellor’s Autumn Budget.

“Over the medium-term, we must, and we will, put our public finances back on a sustainable footing,” he told MPs, adding that the jobs plan was merely the next stage “in our fight to recover and rebuild after coronavirus”.

‘Decent work’

The “job retention bonus” could cost as much as £9.4bn if every furloughed worker is brought back.

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Explaining how it will work, the chancellor said: “If you’re an employer and you bring back someone who was furloughed – and continuously employ them through to January – we’ll pay you a £1,000 bonus per employee.

“It’s vital people aren’t just returning for the sake of it – they need to be doing decent work.

“So for businesses to get the bonus, the employee must be paid at least £520 on average, in each month from November to the end of January – the equivalent of the lower earnings limit in National Insurance.”

• What is VAT and how is it changing?

The VAT cut will apply to eat-in or hot takeaway food and non-alcoholic drinks from restaurants, cafes and pubs, accommodation in hotels, B&Bs, campsites and caravan sites, and attractions like cinemas, theme parks and zoos.

Rishi Sunak said this “£4bn catalyst” would help protect “over 2.4 million jobs”. The Treasury said it hoped firms would pass the VAT savings on to customers but many had been without income for months so it would be their decision.

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Mr Sunak also announced an “Eat Out to Help Out” discount, which he said would help protect 1.8 million jobs, at a cost of £0.5bn.

Meals eaten at any participating business, Monday to Wednesday, will be 50% off in August, up to a maximum discount of £10 per head for everyone, including children.

Businesses will need to register, and can do so through a website, which will open next Monday.

Luke Johnson, former chairman of the Pizza Express, among other restaurant businesses, told BBC Radio 4’s PM the chancellor understood the challenges facing the hospitality sector.

Asked if the voucher scheme would work, he said: “I think a lot of people are still frightened and so every inducement that can be brought to bear to encourage people to get back to their habits of eating and spending and working is good news.”

Stamp duty holiday

The chancellor also announced a £2.1bn “kickstart scheme” to create more jobs for young people.

The fund will subsidise six-month work placements for people on Universal Credit aged between 16 and 24, who are at risk of long-term unemployment.

A temporary stamp duty holiday, costing £3.8bn, to stimulate the property market was another measure unveiled by the chancellor.

This will exempt the first £500,000 of all property sales from the tax, from midnight.

A few other pledges released in the build-up to his statement included:

• Vouchers of up to £5,000 for energy-saving home improvements as part of a wider £3bn plan to cut emissions
• A pledge to provide 30,000 new traineeships for young people in England
• A £1.6bn package for the arts and heritage sector
• The doubling of front line staff at job centres, as well as an extra £32m for recruiting extra careers advisers and £17m for work academies in England

Labour’s shadow chancellor Annaliese Dodds told the BBC she was “concerned” the UK looks “set to be breaking the previous unfortunate record of three million people unemployed”.

She said job support should be better targeted to help struggling sectors.

Some 9.3 million workers are having 80% of their salaries paid for by the government – up to £2,500 a month – under the furlough scheme, which was originally due to end in July, before being extended to October, with employer contributions.

From August, employers must pay National Insurance and pension contributions, then 10% of pay from September, rising to 20% in October.

Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said: “The job retention bonus will help firms protect jobs, but with nearly 70% of firms running low on cash, and three in four reporting lack of demand, more immediate direct support for firms, from grants to further business rates relief, is still urgently needed.”

Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said the newly self-employed and company directors had “once again been overlooked”.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research warned that the chancellor’s “badly timed” measures “could trigger a rapid rise in unemployment”.

The think tank said he was ending the furlough scheme too early and the bonuses for employers to bring staff back “look too small to be effective”.

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The Chancellor has just outlined another hefty chunk of spending to try to prop up the economy, specifically to try to keep millions of people from joining the dole.

Many of the measures run against traditional Tory instincts. And there isn’t a whiff of how any of it will be paid for, for at least another couple of months.

But that’s against the background of the sharpest decline in the economy in generations, with the fortunes of what will actually happen next dependent on the progress of a deadly disease.

Read more analysis from Laura Kuenssberg

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Chancellor Rishi Sunak has delivered his summer economic plan to help the UK economy recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

It includes plans to protect jobs, help younger workers and encourage spending with measures such as a VAT cut for leisure activities and a restaurant voucher scheme.

Here is a summary of the main points.

‘Job retention bonus’ to encourage firms to retain furloughed staff

• A one-off £1000 payment to employers for every furloughed employee retained to the end of January 2021
• Applies to workers earning over £520 per month, UK-wide
• Cost estimated at up to £9.4bn

Six-month VAT cut for restaurants, hotels and attractions

• Value added tax cut from 20% to 5% from 13 July to 12 January 2021 for selected areas
• Food and non-alcoholic drinks in restaurants, pubs and cafes, as well as hot takeaway food will be covered
• Accommodation in hotels and B&Bs and admission to attractions such as theme parks and cinemas also affected
• What the Chancellor’s summer statement means for youo

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Stamp duty cut and ‘green homes grant’

• The threshold for stamp duty on residential property in England and Northern Ireland will rise from £125,000 to £500,000
• Applies from 8 July until 31 March 2021
• Almost nine out of 10 transactions would be tax-free as a result
• Expected to cost around £3.8bn
• Up to £5,000 per household for projects to make homes more energy efficient in England
• Will match owners or landlords’ spend, £2 for £1 for most homes
• Up to £10,000 per household fully funded for low-income households
• How will the stamp duty holiday work?

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Discount on restaurant meals in August

• “Eat out to help out” scheme offers 50% discount for every diner, up to £10 a head, from Monday to Wednesday throughout August
• Covers food and non-alcoholic drinks only
• Applies at participating restaurants, pubs, cafes etc
• Restaurant owners can claim the discount in full from the government via an online form
• Chancellor gives diners 50% off on eating out

Support for young workers

• “Kickstart scheme”: £2bn fund to pay for six-month work placements for 16 to 24-year-olds on universal credit
• Payments cover national minimum wage for 25 hours per week, plus national insurance and pension contributions for Great Britain
• £1,000 grant per trainee for employers who take on new trainees aged 16-24 in England, aiming to triple trainee numbers
• £2,000 grant for employers per apprentice under 25 hired, £1,500 for those over 25, for six months starting 1 August (in England)
• Doubling the number of work coaches at Jobcentre Plus across Great Britain, with extra help for young jobseekers
• £150m extra for the Flexible Support Fund, which provides help for jobseekers (in Great Britain)
• £101m to fund studies for 18 to 19-year-olds in England unable to find work
• £95m to expand the Work and Health Programme to provide additional support for unemployed people on benefits for more than three months
• A job-finding support service for those out of work for less than three months, costing £40m
• £32m over two years for a National Careers Service to provide advice on work and training (in England)
• Sunak unveiling ‘kickstart jobs scheme’ for young people
• ‘Rishi Sunak: Apprentices have been overlooked’

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Infrastructure and decarbonisation

• £1bn of grants to public sector bodies to improve energy efficiency.
• £50m towards a social housing decarbonisation fund, aimed to improve the energy efficiency of socially rented homes.
• The Chancellor also gave further details of a £5.6bn package of infrastructure measures, previously announced by the Prime Minister on 30 June.
• This includes measures for hospitals, school buildings, transport, and housing.