The government has created many coronavirus (COVID-19) response measures to help businesses. Some of these were recently extended in the 2021 Budget, delivered by the chancellor in March. You should view those blogs in the first instance because they detail additional coronavirus support measures not discussed here because they have no time limits, such as loans and rates relief. However, it can be difficult to keep track of the numerous coronavirus schemes that do have dates you must meet. You need to know when you should take action. To help you, in this article we provide an up-to-date timeline, in order of dates occurring soonest - but going all the way through to 2030. We will continue to update it in the future if and when new coronavirus relief measures are announced.
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Downing Street is under growing pressure to spell out how much taxpayers money was spent on the Government s 30-minute documentary on the UK s coronavirus vaccine roll-out.
Critics have labelled the video, entitled A Beacon of Hope: The UK Vaccine Story , a piece of expensive government propaganda after a trailer for the film was unveiled.
Number 10 today insisted the documentary has been made by its in-house social media team at absolutely no additional cost for the taxpayer .
But there are questions over how many staff worked on the project, how many hours they spent on it and what the total budget is of the social media team as critics said the film was a waste of time and money and argued the Government should be focused on promoting public health messages or giving nurses a bigger pay rise.
Downing Street has released images from an Instagram-style photoshoot with Dilyn the dog playing in snow
Another of No10 s three taxpayer-funded photographers recently shared candid shots of Larry the cat
The photoshoots have led to accusation Boris Johnson is funding a vanity project at the taxpayer s expense
He was previously criticised for excluding independent photographers from events in favour of personal photographer Andrew Parsons
The Health Secretary was seen striking several poses today, including leaning on the back of his chair and folding his arms and staring intensely ahead.
£530bn Covid corporate debt mountain threatens economic recovery
Companies now owe hundreds of billions to banks after borrowing heavily to survive the pandemic this year
27 December 2020 • 5:56pm
Bank loans and overdrafts to businesses spiked to almost £530bn this year, threatening to undermine the economic recovery as companies struggle under the weight of debt.
It took corporate debts to banks up from £486bn before the pandemic struck to a peak of almost £545bn in May. The pace of borrowing peaked at £45bn in March alone.
The total has edged down since, but remains well above pre-Covid levels, even as businesses struggle to make ends meet in an economy that remains more than a tenth smaller than it was at the end of 2019.