Nick Ferrari on flexible furlough: "It's just delaying the unfortunate inevitable"
30 July 2020, 08:48
Nick Ferrari on flexible furlough: "Just delaying the inevitable"
When a thinktank called on the government to create a flexible furlough scheme, Nick Ferrari told them they would just be delaying the inevitable.
Nick Ferrari has been calling on a return to offices as soon as possible to get city centre businesses up and running again.
And yesterday, Barclays boss Jes Staley suggested he wants employees to return to the office, saying "We have a responsibility to places like Canary Wharf, like Manchester, like Glasgow."
Rachel Statham, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, called on a flexible furlough scheme to allow companies to keep more people in employment.
But Nick told her: "How would it be paid for? Aren't you just delaying the unfortunate inevitable?
"Because a lot of people who are currently furloughed, actually they are unemployed, they just don't know it yet. So why extend it?
"We continue to pay millions of people billions of pounds to do no work? When ultimately do we pay for this scheme that's cost already more than £30billion?"
Ms Statham responded: "Ultimately the cost of unemployment, compared with keeping people on on a reduced hours basis - sharing work across the economy more effectively.
"This part-time furlough could allow people to share shifts, stay connected to their jobs and stay out of unemployment."
Hear the full, fascinating discussion at the top of the page.
