Government urged to offer £150 shopping vouchers to Brits to kick-start high street
25 February 2021, 11:11
Chancellor Rishi Sunak should give all adults vouchers to spend on the high street, a think tank has proposed.
The Government is being urged to offer £150 shopping vouchers to Brits to help kick-start the high street when non-essential shops reopen.
This comes days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the roadmap out of lockdown for England, which will hopefully see non-essential shops reopen from April 12.
Think tank Resolution Foundation are now urging the Government to offer vouchers for people to kick-start the high street.
Adults should receive £150 in vouchers while children should be given £75, they have proposed.
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The organisation have said the proposed voucher scheme should be part of a £70billion programme later in the year including £27billion for retraining and job support and £18billion in green investment.
Their report reads: "These vouchers could be spent in physical non-food retail, where there is more likelihood that consumption is likely to re-bound more slowly than in other services such as pubs and restaurants.
"This is likely to be the case, with more survey respondents reporting plans to increase their spending on restaurants and pubs after the pandemic than decrease spending.
"But roughly equal proportions of respondents suggesting they would increase or decrease their spending on clothes and other retail.
"This temporary voucher scheme would slow but not halt the longer-term trend towards online retail."
While the plans would be highly-welcomed by both shops and customers, it is believe that Chancellor Rishi Sunak has no plans to bring a voucher scheme into place anytime soon.
However, the Daily Mail have reported that Treasury officials are looking into a recovery package to launch later in the year.
These potential plans could be a life-saver for struggling shops, pubs and restaurants.
