Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron has praised the UK Government for continuing to protect jobs in the Highlands through the job retention scheme.
The Scottish Conservative MSP has highlighted the latest statistics from HMRC which show that 195,200 employees in Scotland were furloughed at the end of October, including 2,700 in Argyll and Bute.
At the peak of the scheme, the UK Government were protecting over 900,000 jobs in Scotland and Chancellor Rishi Sunak has now extended the scheme again until the end of April 2021.
Mr Cameron says coupled alongside the self-employed income support scheme, business loans, increases to universal credit and almost £10 billion worth of Covid support to the Scottish Government, it is the UK Government who are continuing to protect jobs and livelihoods in Argyll and Bute.
“The decision by the Chancellor, to extend the furlough scheme to the end of April, provides a very welcome degree of certainty for many people across Argyll and Bute. Our ability, at a time of such great economic uncertainty, to take advantage of the resources of the sixth largest economy in the world, is helping us to secure jobs and livelihoods which might otherwise be lost."
“It’s quite right that the UK Government is putting jobs at the centre of its strategy as we need to do everything possible to protect the future prospects of our young people.”
