Stuart Anderson MP was delighted to host the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Wolverhampton. Rishi Sunak MP visited the city on Wednesday the 7th of July 2021 to mark the first year anniversary of the Government’s Plan for Jobs.
Exactly a year ago today, Chancellor Rishi Sunak set out the Government’s Plan for Jobs - an ambitious blueprint to protect, support, and create jobs across the UK and to help people gain the skills that they need to get into work. Across the West Midlands, over 1.2 million individuals have had their incomes protected through the Government’s unprecedented Job Retention and Self-Employment Income Support schemes.
in Stuart’s constituency, 13,700 individuals have been supported through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Almost £5 million has been paid out via the Self-Employment Income Support grant scheme. In addition, local businesses in the constituency have benefitted from over £84 million in government funding via the Business Interruption and Bounce Black Loan Schemes. Overall, more than £900 million has been secured in funding for Wolverhampton since Stuart was elected. A comprehensive list can be found here.
During his visit to Wolverhampton, the Chancellor saw how Government funding has enabled major improvements to take place at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery. It is one of the city’s main tourist attractions and recently featured in Stuart’s own tourism map of Wolverhampton South West. In recent years, the Art Gallery has benefitted from over half a million pounds in Government funding via the Arts Council England. Before the outbreak of COVID-19 the Gallery had been allocated £431,723 to help make improvements to the main reception, create a digital learning suite, and carry out refurbishments to increase the space for exhibitions and collections.
COVID-19 halted the construction work and the Gallery faced a shortfall of capital funding until a successful application to the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund saw the popular venue allocated an extra £159,758 to help deliver the project. It is hoped that the upgrades will help the Gallery undertake new literary activity, building relationships with local organisations, and engage more widely with local communities and audiences.
Stuart Anderson MP said: “It was fantastic to host the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in Wolverhampton. He saw first-hand the great impact being achieved by the Government’s Plan for Jobs. Together, we have supported thousands of jobs across the city and have ambitious plans to create many more. Our employment and training programmes are levelling up opportunities across a wide range of sectors including arts, heritage, and tourism where the Culture Recovery Fund is helping the Art Gallery develop into a cherished place of learning and enrichment for all. As we look to build back better, I am determined to ensure that everyone is included in our COVID-19 recovery plans.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said: “This time last year we faced a potential tidal wave of job losses with the UK on the brink of a financial crisis like no other in history. But we made a Plan for Jobs, we stuck to that plan and it’s working - supporting more than 14.5 million jobs to date and helping people in Wolverhampton, the West Midlands and across the UK gain the skills they need to get back into work. We know the job is not yet done and our economy needs to recover – which is why we are continuing our support to give everyone the best chance of moving on from this crisis.”
Stuart has created a webpage with a range of local, regional and national employment support here.
On Jobs: 11.6 million jobs have been supported through the furlough scheme and unemployment, which was once feared to peak at 12%, is now forecast to be around half of that. Meaning 2 million fewer people losing their jobs.
On Incomes: we have supported 2.9 million self-employed people with grants worth over £25 billion and in the face of the biggest recession in 300 years, household incomes remain broadly the same.
On Businesses: 1.5 million businesses have been supported through our loan schemes and extraordinarily last year business failures were actually down on the year before.