Performing arts venues across Edinburgh and the Lothians have received £1,325,698 from the open call for applications to the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund through Creative Scotland.
Awards made to Edinburgh and the Lothians performing arts venues as part of the £5million open call are as follows:
Assembly (The Roxy), £85,000
Capital Theatres Trust (Festival Theatre and King’s Theatre), £250,000
Edinburgh City Council (Usher Hall), £240,450
Howden Park Theatre, £95,000
Leith Theatre, £138,214
Out of the Blue, £67,034
Queen’s Hall, £175,000
The Brunton Theatre, £250,000
The Regal, Bathgate, £25,000
Designed to support performing arts venues that cannot yet re-open due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Fund is helping to:
Remove the threat of insolvency prior to the end of March 2021 to enable the development and delivery of activity as soon as practicable
Allow for specialist / core staff to return from furlough or avoid redundancy to work on future sustainable activity plans
Increase commissioning and employment opportunities for freelance artists and creative practitioners (between now and end of March 2021) to support continued public engagement while closed
Iain Munro, CEO, Creative Scotlandsaid: “Despite the ongoing, detrimental impact that the Covid-19 pandemic is having on Scotland’s performing arts venues, and on culture as a whole, it is positive that we can offer some funding to help venues navigate these extremely challenging times.
“I’m also encouraged to see that this funding will help venues across many different parts of Scotland where they form such an important part of the cultural life of local communities.”
These venues are among 59 across Scotland sharing a total of £4.74million from the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund’s £5million open call. A full list of all 59 venues can be found on the Creative Scotland website.
Jude Henderson, Director of the Federation of Scottish Theatre(FST) said: “We welcome the announcement of these emergency awards to performing arts venues across the country.
“The funds will help to support the vital work they do in serving communities, providing employment and showcasing Scotland’s world class theatre and dance offer, much of which is created by our members.”
Today’s news follows the £1,719,000 previously awarded to venues across Edinburgh through the targeted strand of the fund, including Dance Base, Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, The Storytelling Centre/TRACS and Traverse Theatre.
The Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund is one of a series of measures being put in place to help mitigate the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on the creative and cultural sector, including five new emergency funds which were announced by the First Minister on Friday 28 August and are being delivered through Creative Scotland as follows:
The £5million Creative Freelancer Hardship Fund, for which we issued an open call for partner organisations to help us distribute this fund, was launched on Friday 11 September, and has a deadline of Friday 25 September. We aim to be able to distribute funds from October. The Screen element of these Hardship Funds opened for applications on Tuesday 22 September.
The £5million Sustaining Creative Practice Fund includes £1.5million for the Culture Collective programme, mentioned in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government, supporting organisations employing freelance artists to work in and with communities across Scotland. The remaining £3.5million has been added to Creative Scotland’s existing Open Fund which is open for applications from individuals now.
The previously announced £2.2million Grassroots Venues Stabilisation Fund has reached 72 venues across. Recipients were published on Tuesday 22 September and full information on awards made, can be found on the Creative Scotland website.
Updates on all emergency funds are being published regularly on the Creative Scotland website and publicised through media and social media communications.
Students caught up in serious Covid outbreaks in Scotland’s university cities have questioned why university halls were allowed to open. The students have been told not to visit pubs or restaurants this weekend or to return home after hundreds of students across the country tested positive for coronavirus.
Following the outbreak of positive cases of coronavirus in student accommodation in parts of Scotland, university Principals met with the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, Richard Lochhead, to discuss what further measures and messages could be emphasised to stop the spread of the virus.
Commenting after the meeting, Convener of Universities Scotland, Professor Gerry McCormac said: “University leaders share the Scottish Government’s complete commitment to keeping the student population and the wider community safe.
“We have already implemented strict measures to ensure the safety of the university environment, both for teaching and for student residences. We have seen the majority of students live up to our expectations of responsible behaviour, but a minority have not. Everyone across the nation shares the concern at seeing students in residences test positive for the virus and we will act decisively to deal with this.
“The additional actions we will take to drive down the transmission of the virus in student accommodation build on the wide-ranging measures already agreed with Scottish Government. Taken together, we are confident that these will help significantly to control the virus in student accommodation and impact on the number of positive cases; after the inevitable time-lag caused by some existing cases not yet being symptomatic.
“Our top priority to making sure that students that have tested positive and those quarantining are well-supported and ready to return to their studies. We appreciate this isn’t what students would have expected from their first few weeks at university, but it is critical that they play their part in suppressing the virus.”
The Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, Richard Lochhead MSP, said: “This is a welcome package of additional actions, building on the clear guidance that is already in place, to support all students and staff adhere to the rules and stay safe as they make a welcome return to study.
“We expect everyone to comply with public health advice and, as new laws come into force tomorrow, it’s even more important institutions make every effort to ensure the rules are understood and followed – and appropriate actions are taken if not. We know that these are difficult times for many students and we are grateful to them for the sacrifices they are making to protect themselves, their fellow students and the wider community.”
Universities have agreed that:
All universities will make absolutely clear to students that there must be no parties, and no socialising outside their households – communicating and reinforcing these messages on a regular basis using our full range of media channels. Breaches will not be tolerated.
This weekend, the first of the new tighter Scottish Government guidance, we will require students to avoid all socialising outside of their households and outside of their accommodation. We will ask them not to go to bars or other hospitality venues. We will be clear that this is a necessary step at this crucial moment of managing the virus in the student population, to protect students and the wider community.
We will increase the staff presence in student accommodation, to be vigilant against any breaches of guidance and also to offer welfare and practical support to students who are experiencing isolation.
We will engage further with private providers of student accommodation, especially those with significant numbers of bedspaces, to follow our lead and strictly enforce guidance.
We will intensify our institutions’ liaison with Police Scotland, to ensure vigilance about student behaviour off-campus and in private accommodation.
We will take a strict ‘Yellow Card/Red Card’ approach to breaches of student discipline that put students and others at risk. While we first want to advise students about breaches of discipline, we will not hesitate to escalate this to disciplinary action including potential discontinuation of study.
We will commit to further agile staff responses to immediately respond to cases, to help manage the pressures on the public health authorities.
We will require all students to download the Protect Scotland app.
Taking forward these actions we will work very closely with the students’ association of each institution.
Every student who needs a test is able to get one. To further develop the testing system we will continue to work closely with the Scottish and UK Governments on the roll-out of walk-through testing centres in major centres of student population. Where these have been established, they have been a great help to having fast and accessible testing and quick action to contain the spread of the virus. We will are also in discussion with the UK and Scottish Governments about increased availability of home testing in universities.
Responding to updated guidelines for students announced last night by university principals and endorsed by the Scottish Government, Matt Crilly, NUS Scotland President, said: “The announcement by Universities Scotland, and endorsed by the Scottish Government, unfairly blames students for the spread of coronavirus and takes the unjustified step of applying different rules to students over and above the rest of the adult population.
“These measures are deeply concerning – not least to those students who rely on income from hospitality jobs. Having different rules for students makes it even more confusing to stay within guidance, which could make things less safe. And the rules show a complete disregard for students’ mental health and wellbeing. We need better.
“To protect students and communities, we’re calling for targeted support for students who are isolating, for online learning to be the default position, and for students to be given the opportunity to return home without penalty when it is safe to do so.
“The recent outbreak is extremely concerning, and like everyone we students must comply with the public health guidance. It is important to remember that students were strongly encouraged to return to campus, leaving families and support networks behind.
“Like everyone else, students are anxious. We ask the university principals and the Scottish Government to refrain from singling out students and to provide urgent clarity on these measures and their impact on students.”
Education Vice Convener Cllr Alison Dickie writes about the pressing issue of child poverty in Edinburgh:
Let’s talk about stigma, even ‘poor kids’ and how it fuels inequality.
Posh pickles and peppered crackers. Years ago, as a young family down Glasgow way, we made some kind soul feel good when they gifted us an exotic hamper. At the time, I remember thinking that it must have been worth about £50, money that could have bought the school trousers our sons needed.
This, and the wider experience of being worried about the next penny, our reliance on housing benefit, and the debt that became a problem, has given me some understanding about the complexity of poverty today.
Lockdown, and its significant impact on lives, has helped many others better understand how we can be just one life change or support network away from becoming financially vulnerable.
We live in an affluent city but there’s deep inequality, where 23% of our children live in poverty – as high as one in three in some areas. And these children and families struggle to get the smallest and most basic of items, never mind homes in this city of shocking rents and house prices. Contrary to popular opinion, 66% of these children come from families where at least one parent works.
In my own classrooms, there was the period stained skirt not to be forgotten, and the PE kit that was never coming out that wash.
And as Vice Convener of Education, I still remember the pupil who shared her family’s shame of walking through the streets to their homeless accommodation, bin bags of belongings clutched in their hands.
Pickled gifts are nice and food provision is vital, but they won’t end child poverty. And neither will a mindset that continues to see the deficit of ‘poories’ and the ‘vulnerable’, rather than the strengths that every child and their family can bring to the future of our city if we get alongside them for the long haul.
Sometimes we recreate inequality. Think of the bulging schools we deem the best, often mistaking levels of academic performance for loaded advantage, or our hesitancy to sit down, learn and work with anyone.
What too of the postcodes judged, or those loud, already empowered, voices who too heavily influence decisions? And those annual SQA results, the prominence given to them when we say we equally value the strengths and qualifications of every young person?
Next week, the Edinburgh Poverty Commission will launch its findings, and their report will inform the Council’s second Child Poverty Action Plan.
Education, in its most holistic sense, is key, from the equity framework that increasingly informs practice across our schools, to helping families find the benefits to which they are entitled through income maximisation, and the mentoring and wraparound support too.
This, and building a stigma-free environment that supports everyone, from a focus on nurture and wellbeing, to digital devices for all, and the roll out of 1140 early years places to help families back to work.
So, ‘All I am saying, is give every child a chance!’
Booking is now live for our next creative ageing event Bringing art and creativity back to care homes. Book your place here.
This event, on 30th September at 11am, will bring together community artists with colleagues in health and social care to explore how we might bring art and creativity back into care homes over the coming months.
It will be some time before artist visits to care homes can resume, but what is possible? A small number of activities led or supported by artists are now happening at a distance using online and offline approaches, and usually building on relationships between artists and care homes that existed before lockdown. What can we learn from these experiences?
This online event is part of a series of Creative Ageing events from Luminate, focusing on how we can continue to support opportunities for older people to engage with the arts.
The Scottish Government has now committed more than £350 million to support communities during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Since March, this funding has enabled councils, charities and community groups to be flexible and respond swiftly to help people impacted economically or socially, including those struggling to access food at the height of lockdown.
The package included over £120 million to tackle food insecurity, with £12.6 million making sure 175,000 children and young people were able to access free school meals over the summer holidays.
£22 million funding was made available through the Third Sector Resilience Fund, as part of £80 million allocated to third sector and community organisations. As outlined in the Programme for Government, £25 million will now be focused on a new Community and Third Sector Recovery Programme.
This will include business support and investment to help organisations adapt to new ways of working and become sustainable, as they continue to support people and communities in response to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said: “We have now invested more than the initial £350 million communities funding we announced in March to support people through this public health crisis.
“Our funds have supported people shielding, or struggling with food insecurity, or maintaining free school meals. In addition over 14,000 jobs were safeguarded with £22 million funding through the Third Sector Resilience Fund, and funding was made available for the new Connecting Scotland project to get people online and stay connected.
“This significant funding package has been instrumental in protecting the health, welfare and wellbeing of people throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Organisations across all sectors have stepped up and worked together to ensure our communities are supported throughout this time and I want to thank them for all their efforts.
“Working collaboratively with local government, the third sector, business and communities has produced inspiring, collaborative, locally-based responses to the pandemic and we will learn from that as we continue into recovery.”
Michelle Carruthers, CEO of The Food Train charity, said: “The funding provided to Food Train allowed us to respond to a 70% increase in older people needing help to access food during the pandemic.
“Food Train has been helping more than 3,200 older people during the pandemic. The funds were used to provide temporary extra delivery vehicles, extra local staff, more shopping boxes and safety kits for the staff and volunteer teams to help keep everyone safe.
“We were also able to set up COVID-19 check-in calls, making more than 9,000 calls in five months where approximately a third of the members getting regular calls were shielding.”
Read the full text of the Cabinet Secretary’s letter to the Local Government and Communities Committee.
Lothian MSP, Miles Briggs, is supporting the campaign to save indoor and soft play centres in Scotland. Mr Briggs has submitted a motion at the Scottish Parliament which has gained cross party support from Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent MSPs.
Indoor and soft play areas employ hundreds of staff across Edinburgh and the Lothians, whose jobs are at risk due to closures.
Indoor play centres were due to open on the 14th September, but was postponed with 4 days’ notice. The new opening date of 5th October is looking increasingly unlikely with the rise in the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Scotland.
Thousands of pounds have been spent by indoor and soft play centres preparing for a reopening that is looking like it will not happen. The autumn and winter months are the busiest times for indoor and soft play centres, with the weather being less good.
Indoor and soft play centre campaigners have held a rally outside the Scottish Parliament yesterday (Wednesday 23rd September) to raise the profile of indoor play centres and highlight the lack of support from the SNP Ministers and the Scottish Government.
Lothian MSP, Miles Briggs, said:“Indoor and soft play areas have spent thousands of pounds getting themselves Covid-19 ready, to minimise the spread of transmission, and allow them to open their doors again.
“These businesses have been told at short notice that they are no longer able to reopen and many are at real risk of closure, threatening jobs and peoples livelihoods.
“If the indoor and soft play areas are being singled out to stay closed, then the Scottish Government must provide them with the necessary support to survive through to next year.
“Indoor and soft play areas are valuable in the community, allowing young children to play and interact, as well as being sociable places for parents.”
Jennifer McNaughton, manager at Pandamonium Play Centre, said:“The majority of family run soft play areas in Scotland will not survive after the announcement at the start of October if they do not receive financial support from the Scottish Government.
“Indoor and soft play centres in England, Ireland and Wales are allowed to be opened with strict guidelines and since mid-August in England.
“Why are other sectors such as night clubs and theatres allowed to open when indoor soft play areas are not, which provide cheap and cheerful unstructured play, that prevents obesity and is crucial for children’s mental health?”
An Edinburgh teenager who defied medical experts has had his passion for dancing transformed into artwork for Edinburgh’s new Sick Kids hospital.
Evan Glass, 13, battled through his first two hours of life and mum Danni was told he may never eat, talk or walk. Since birth, he has been fascinating medical experts with his resilience – but it is his dance performances which most often leave people speechless.
Evan began dancing five years ago through attending classes run by Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity’s (ECHC) Arts Programme. Run in partnership with Dance Base, the classes support children receiving treatment at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children with their physiotherapy. Through dance, Evan has completely transformed the way he moves.
Danni Glass, Evan’s mum, said: “I was given the news that every mum fears after giving birth – I was told that my baby wouldn’t make it. Doctors still can’t believe he is here but he is proving everybody wrong!
“Since beginning ECHC’s Step Out dance classes, Evan has come on leaps and bounds. His movements used to be quite stiff and robotic but now he moves much more fluidly. His balance has also really improved but where we have seen the biggest changes are in his confidence – it has really helped to bring him out of himself.”
When Evan was offered the opportunity by ECHC to have his dancing made into a piece of artwork for the new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP), he jumped at the chance.
To create the piece, Evan and Dance Base Instructor Christina Liddell wore sensors on their wrists and ankles which tracked their movements as they danced together. These movements were digitalised and coloured, then transformed into the beautiful piece of artwork that is now displayed for all to see on entering the new children’s hospital.
Danni said: “Evan is my little miracle. I am so, so proud of everything that he has achieved. He just forgets everything when he dances and loses all of his anxieties – it’s just wonderful to watch.
“He was so excited to take part in the making of the artwork with Christina and thinks the finished piece is the greatest thing ever. I never realised it would be as big as it is – it’s absolutely amazing! When he first saw it, he was so chuffed and wanted to take photos from every angle. It’s just incredible to think that his artwork is now on display for people to see in the hospital forever.”
Fiona O’Sullivan, Arts Programme Manager at ECHC, said: “We are all so proud of just how far Evan has come with the help of our partnership with Dance Base. Since starting out, he has danced with Christina at a number of our events and he always steals the show!
“Our Arts Programme doesn’t just provide distraction for children in hospital – it achieves real results that help to improve patients’ health and wellbeing.
“Evan is testament to this and we are thrilled that his artwork is now on display at the RHCYP so visitors can see just how remarkable he is.”
ECHC’s Arts Programme will play a key role at the RHCYP when it opens next year. The charity has funded over £3.1million worth of enhancements at the new hospital to give children and young people a positive hospital experience.
Evan’s artwork is just one of the many beautiful and often interactive art and design pieces that can be seen throughout the new building.
To help support more children, young people and families in hospital and healthcare like Evan and Danni, donations can be made at www.echcharity.org/donate
All Muirhouse Medical Centre patients eligible for the Flu Injection are invited to attend a walk in or drive through clinic. These clinics are being held on Saturdays and Sundays in October and November.
You may attend any clinic, at the time allocated to your surname. Please be aware that the first clinics are likely to be very busy.
Walk-In clinics will be at Pennywell All Care Centre. They are on Saturday 10th, Sunday 11th, Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th October. Please go to the clinic at the allocated time-slot for the first letter of your surname (listed below).
Drive Through Clinics will be held on Saturday 24th, Sunday 25th and Saturday 31st October and Sunday 1st, Saturday 7th, Sunday 8th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th November at Scottish Gas, 1 Waterfront Avenue, Edinburgh EH5 1SG
You can attend on any of these dates. Please go to the clinic at the allocated time-slot for the first letter of your surname. If there is more than 1 person in the car, come at the time allocated by the surname of the driver.
The time slots are: A & B: 9.00am – 10.00am C & D: 10.00am – 11.00am E – H: 11.00am – 12 noon I – L: 12 noon – 1.00pm M – N: 1.00pm – 2:30pm O – R: 2.30pm – 3.30pm S – U: 3.30pm – 4.30pm V – Z: 4.30pm – 5.30pm
Children’s Flu Vaccine
Children from the age of 2 -5 on 01.09.20 will be offered the flu vaccine and it is strongly recommended that you get your child protected from the flu. You will be sent a leaflet telling you how to book an appointment for your child to get it. (It is a nasal spray, not an injection).
Children at Primary school will be given the injection at school between October and December. They will bring an information leaflet home from school and a permission slip for you to sign.
For more information visit www.nhsinform.scot/childflu or call 0800 22 44 88 .
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has outlined his Winter Economy Plan at Westminster
Mr Speaker, Thank you for granting me permission to make this Statement to the House today.
Earlier this week the Prime Minister set out the next stage of the government’s health response to Coronavirus.
Today I want to explain the next phase of our planned economic response.
The House will be reassured to know I have been developing plans to protect jobs and the economy over the winter period.
Plans that seek to strike the finely-judged balance between managing the virus and protecting the jobs and livelihoods of millions. Mr Speaker,
I know people are anxious, and afraid, and exhausted, at the prospect of further restrictions on our economic and social freedoms.
I share those feelings, but there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.
We are in a fundamentally different position than we were in March.
And we now know much more about this virus.
Public awareness of the risks, and how to mitigate them, is far greater.
And we have met our promise to give the NHS whatever it needs, with significant new funding for NHS capacity, for PPE, and, I can inform the House today, we have now provided over £12 billion for test and trace.
In economic terms, while our output remains well below where it was in February, we have seen three consecutive months of growth.
And millions of people have moved off the furlough and back to work.
But the resurgence of the virus, and the measures we need to take in response, pose a threat to this fragile economic recovery.
So our task now is to move to the next stage of our economic plan, nurturing the recovery by protecting jobs through the difficult winter months.
Mr Speaker, The underlying rationale for the next phase of economic support must be different to what came before.
The primary goal of our economic policy remains unchanged: to support people’s jobs.
But the way we achieve that must evolve.
Back in March, we hoped we were facing a temporary period of disruption.
In response, we provided one of the most generous and comprehensive economic plans anywhere in the world with £190 billion of support for people, businesses and public services, as we protected our economic capacity.
It is now clear, as the Prime Minister and our scientific advisers have said, for at least the next six months the virus and restrictions are going to be a fact of our lives.
Our economy is now likely to undergo a more permanent adjustment.
The sources of our economic growth and the kinds of jobs we create, will adapt and evolve to the new normal. And our plan needs to adapt and evolve in response.
Above all, we need to face up to the trade-offs and hard choices Coronavirus presents. And, Mr Speaker, there has been no harder choice than the decision to end the furlough scheme.
The furlough was the right policy at the time we introduced it.
It provided immediate, short-term protection for millions of jobs through a period of acute crisis.
But as the economy reopens it is fundamentally wrong to hold people in jobs that only exist inside the furlough.
We need to create new opportunities and allow the economy to move forward and that means supporting people to be in viable jobs which provide genuine security.
As I’ve said throughout this crisis, I cannot save every business. I cannot save every job. No Chancellor could.
But what we can and must do is deal with the real problems businesses and employees are facing now.
In March, the problem was that we ordered businesses to close.
In response, we paid people to stay at home and not work.
Today, the problem is different.
Many businesses are operating safely and viably, but they now face uncertainty and reduced demand over the winter months.
What those businesses need is support to bring people back to work and protect as many viable jobs as we can.
To do that, I am announcing today the new Jobs Support Scheme.
The government will directly support the wages of people in work giving businesses who face depressed demand the option of keeping employees in a job on shorter hours rather than making them redundant.
The Jobs Support Scheme is built on three principles.
First, it will support viable jobs.
To make sure of that, employees must work at least a third of their normal hours and be paid for that work, as normal, by their employer.
The government, together with employers, will then increase those people’s wages covering two-thirds of the pay they have lost by reducing their working hours.
And the employee will keep their job.
Second, we will target support at firms who need it the most.
All small and medium sized businesses are eligible.
But larger businesses, only when their turnover has fallen through the crisis.
Third, it will be open to employers across the United Kingdom, even if they have not previously used the furlough scheme.
The scheme will run for six months starting in November.
And employers retaining furloughed staff on shorter hours can claim both the Jobs Support Scheme and the Jobs Retention Bonus.
Mr Speaker,
Throughout this crisis, we have sought parity between employees and the self-employed providing more than £13 billion of support to over 2.6 million self-employed small businesses.
So I am extending the existing self-employed grant on similar terms and conditions as the new Jobs Support Scheme …
Mr Speaker,
These are radical interventions in the UK labour market; policies we have never tried in this country before.
Together with the Jobs Retention Bonus, the Kickstart scheme for young people, tens of billions of pounds of job creation schemes, new investment in training and apprenticeships, we are protecting millions of jobs and businesses.
Mr Speaker, If we want to protect jobs this winter, the second major challenge is helping businesses with cash flow.
Over the last six months, we’ve supported business with tens of billions of pounds of tax deferrals and generous, government-backed loans.
Those policies have been a lifeline.
But right now, businesses need every extra pound to protect jobs rather than repaying loans and tax deferrals.
So I’m taking four further steps today to make that happen.
First, Bounce Back Loans have given over a million small businesses a £38 billion boost to survive this pandemic. To give those businesses more time and greater flexibility to repay their loans, we are introducing Pay As You Grow.
This means:
loans can now be extended from six to ten years – nearly halving the average monthly repayment
businesses who are struggling can now choose to make interest-only payments
and, anyone in real trouble can apply to suspend repayments altogether for up to six months
No business taking up Pay As You Grow will see their credit rating affected as a result.
Second, I am also changing the terms of our other loan schemes.
More than 60,000 Small and Medium sized businesses have now taken out Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans.
To help them, I plan to extend the government guarantee on these loans for up to ten years, making it easier for lenders to give people more time to repay.
I am also extending the deadline of all our loan schemes to the end of the year. And we are starting work on a new, successor loan programme, set to begin in January.
Third, I want to give businesses more time and flexibility over their deferred tax bills.
Nearly half a million businesses deferred more than £30 billion of VAT this year.
On current plans, those payments fall due in March.
Instead, I will allow businesses to spread that VAT bill over 11 smaller repayments, with no interest to pay.
And any of the millions of self-assessed income taxpayers who need extra help, can also now extend their outstanding tax bill over 12 months from next January.
The final step I’m taking today will support two of the most affected sectors: hospitality and tourism.
On current plans, their VAT rates will increase from 5% back to the standard rate of 20% on January the 13th.
So to support more than 150,000 businesses and help protect 2.4 million jobs through the winter I am announcing today that we are cancelling the planned increase and will keep the lower 5% VAT rate until March 31st next year.
Mr Speaker, Today’s measures mark an important evolution in our approach.
Our lives can no longer be put on hold.
Since May, we have taken steps to liberate our economy and society.
We did these things because life means more than simply existing.
We find meaning and hope through our friends and family, through our work, through our community.
People were not wrong for wanting that meaning, for striving towards normality, and nor was the government wrong to want this for them.
I said in the summer that we must endure and live with the uncertainty of the moment.
This means learning our new limits as we go.
Because the truth is the responsibility for defeating Coronavirus cannot be held by government alone.
It is a collective responsibility, shared by all.
Because the cost is paid by all.
We have so often spoken about this virus in terms of lives lost.
But the price our country is paying is wider than that.
The government has done much to mitigate the effects of the awful trade-offs between health, education and employment.
And as we think about the next few weeks and months, we need to bear all of those costs in mind.
As such, it would be dishonest to say there is now some risk-free solution.
Or that we can mandate behaviour to such an extent we lose any sense of personal responsibility.
What was true at the beginning of this crisis remains true now.
It’s on all of us.
And we must learn to live with it and live without fear.
– Customers can sign up for weekly, fortnightly or monthly deliveries of food boxes –
– Customers will receive the delivery without needing a delivery slot –
– Savings introduced for food boxes as demand for other online services increases –
– A Feed a Family Box is also being offered to feed a family of four for five days –
– New site opened in Wakefield to manufacture food boxes –
Morrisons is today announcing new measures to its online food box service that will help customers to get a delivery of groceries to their doorstep.
With demand for online delivery slots increasing across the retail sector, Morrisons will be offering more ways to help customers buy its pre-prepared food boxes.
New measures include:
From today, Customers can opt for a weekly, fortnightly or monthly food box delivery so they can receive a regular and predictable home delivery.
Those who opt for this ‘subscription’ service will receive a 5% discount.
To support customers who want to switch to its Food Boxes Morrisons is offering a further 20 per cent discount which will apply to the first shop. The code is BOX154864P.
Morrisons has set aside a facility in Wakefield with hundreds of staff to make food boxes for the nation.
Morrisons is offering a Feed a Family Recipe Box to feed a family of four for five days
With coronavirus case rates rising and new restrictions being introduced, demand for food boxes has increased by 56% per cent in the last week.
Morrisons food boxes were launched in March in response to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown. They provide an alternative for customers who are not able to leave their home or would prefer not to visit a supermarket. Customers can choose from a range of pre-prepared boxes to meet their needs.
Aidan Buckley, Director of Food to Order, for Morrisons said: “Customers use our food box service to get fresh food and cupboard essentials delivered to their doorstep quickly. We are making the service simpler and even better value to ensure everyone can get access to affordable food at this difficult time.”
Morrisons is offering a Feed a FamilyRecipe Box to help families get through the week. It contains five meals to feed a family of four. Costing just £30 each meal works out at only £1.50. A Cupboard Essentials box at £22 includes Long Life Milk, Soup, Rice, Pasta, Tuna, Beans, Custard Creams, Wine Gums and even a 4 pack of Toilet Roll.
Customers can also access a Beers, Wines and Gin Boxes, along with Flowers as treats for themselves or gifts for others.
Morrisons food box range includes; a series of weekly ‘food parcel’ style Essentials Boxes for meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans; Fruit, Meat and Fish boxes for households who want to stock up; and Gluten Free, and Lean Meat boxes for customers with special dietary requirements.
All boxes are ordered online and delivered to customers doors the next day by DPD.
For further information and to order a Morrisons Food Box please visit:
