Spending review: Rishi Sunak to spend extra £4.3bn on unemployment programmes
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Rishi Sunak will unveil a new £2.9bn unemployment scheme and £1.4bn in extra funding for Job Centre Plus at tomorrow’s comprehensive spending review.
A statement from the Treasury said Sunak’s three-year Restart scheme will help 1m people find work, with those unemployed for more than 12 months to get “regular, intensive jobs support”.
In 2021-2022 the scheme will receive the first £400m of the £2.9bn.
The extra £1.4bn of new funding in tomorrow’s spending review will be given to the Department for Work and Pensions to increase Job Centre Plus capacity.
The UK’s unemployment rate jumped to 4.8 per cent two weeks ago, up from 4.5 per cent.
The number of workers on payrolls has dropped by 782,000 from March to October.
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In a statement released tonight, Sunak said: “My number one priority is to protect jobs and livelihoods across the UK.
“This spending review will ensure hundreds of thousands of jobs are supported and protected in the acute phase of this crisis and beyond with a multi-billion package of investment to ensure that no one is left without hope or opportunity”.
The new funding will be announced in tomorrow’s spending review, which is also expected to include tens of billions of funding for new infrastructure projects.
The chancellor will also reaffirm extra funding for public services to hire more nurses and police officers.
A focus for Sunak is likely to be the so-called green book, which determines which projects the government should invest in.
It has historically been skewed towards London and the south east, however this is expected to be changed to favour projects in the North and Midlands.