The approach recalls the measures of a social democratic government, instead it is the Tory government of Boris Johnson who, despite numerous misjudgements in the health management of the coronavirus emergency, shows to all its former partners of the European Union what measures to take for trying to escape, at least economically, from the pandemic crisis.
The virus is in fact affecting 35% of the British GDP, which together with the alarming growth of unemployment which records a + 10% rise (we are talking of over 2 million people) in the second quarter of 2020, giving the British situation a completely different perspective to a positive one. Almost half of the people were unable to work from home during the coronavirus lockdown.
To give a certain and clear signal, the English finance minister, the forty-year-old Rishi Sunak, has launched a series of concrete measures for companies operating in the tourism and catering sector. The British government will cover half the cost of a meal out (up to a maximum of £ 20). In short, a restaurant meal half paid by the state. The mechanism is very simple: the customer sits, eats and at the end of the meal, pays half, for a maximum of £10 subsidy on a £20 bill.
There is no mention of meal vouchers, or special cards. It will be up to the restaurant owner or pub manager to request a refund within five days. And while in Italy many restaurateurs are still waiting for the aid promised by the State and their employees for the money of the unemployment insurance, companies in Great Britain have been able to count on a series of loans at no cost and on a layoffs paid 80% by the State to almost everyone, even self-employed.
And if all this concreteness was not enough, for the Horeca sector, VAT is cut from 20% to 5%. Another measure requested by the same category also in Italy and taking into account by the Government just for the time to trash it.
In general, measures to support businesses and families in the UK have cost £ 350 billion so far. Just a few days ago, then, about £ 1.6 billion were allocated to the culture sector, one of the hardest hit by the crisis.
For small businesses, hotels and restaurants, the plan provided for cash flow grants which therefore will not have to be repaid, from a minimum of 10,000 to a maximum of £ 50,000.
It is evident that in England compared to Italy, the aid mechanism responds to completely different logics. It is an approach that is the result of a mentality that has its roots in the tradition of liberal thought, but also of true social solidarity, for which private initiative must not be opposed or harassed, but favoured.
Fabrizio Capaccioli
ASACERT Managing Director
“With ITA0039 we have been able to certify many activities in recent years, including the prestigious San Carlo Restaurant chain and we know that the British government, for example, gives the worker maximum confidence, accessing funds through a self-filing online declaration. In this way, the speed of payments is guaranteed, it will then be in the control phase that the Government will supervise the declarations and if these do not correspond to the truth, the restaurateur will no longer be able to continue doing business. In Italy, the forms to which the worker must submit through the INPS Institute, require in-depth studies, are complex and unclear and the outcome is not always certain to be achieved” says Fabrizio Capaccioli AD ASACERT, creator of the ITA0039 | 100% Italian taste certification.
In the UK concrete measures to support the recovery of catering: the bill is shared with the government!