Extending the furlough scheme until at least October means it is “less likely people will have jobs to return to once the lockdown ends”  as companies will delay adapting their business model to the new normal, says Professor Len Shackleton, Editorial and Research Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Quoted in The Sun newspaper, Len added “[it] would have been better to spell out much more clearly what the government intends now, rather than delaying the detail of what Mr Sunak proposes.”