The Chief Executive of Bradford-based Manningham Housing Association (MHA) has called on Rishi Sunak not to abandon low wage workers following his statement to MPs earlier today.
Responding to the Chancellor’s announcement that employees would have to work a minimum of a third of their normal hours to benefit from the Government’s new job support scheme, Lee Bloomfield said:
“There are estimated to be up to three million workers currently on furlough, including a significant number in Bradford and Keighley where MHA has around 6,000 tenants.
“In the wake of Mr Sunak’s statement, there is a real fear that many furloughed employees will no longer have a job to return to.
“The furlough scheme, welcome as it has been, still resulted in a significant reduction in income for families who were already struggling in a low wage economy.
“The Chancellor had nothing to say about how the Government plans to support those workers who now appear to be at grave risk of redundancy.
“If he feels unable to keep them in their current jobs, there is a pressing need to establish job creation schemes and a pathway for workers to retrain.
“Bradford and Keighley cannot afford generations, young and old, being left without a decent income and the opportunity to contribute to the economic wellbeing of their families and wider local communities.
“I fully appreciate that Mr Sunak faces unprecedented challenges in the biggest global crisis of our lifetimes, but he needs to do more.”
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