Half a million Londoners still on leave, new data reveals UK News

More than half a million Londoners are still on leave, according to provisional data released today by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

London has consistently had the most employees on leave of any region in England since July 2020, with 551,300 people still on leave as of April 30 of this year.

But the number of employees on leave in the capital has dropped considerably since the end of March, when there were 670,700 people on leave, with non-essential retail and leisure businesses as well as open-air hospitality establishments having reopened in mid-April.

Newham, Brent, Haringey, Hounslow, Barnet and Waltham Forest are among the 10 local authorities in England with the highest participation in the government’s coronavirus job-retention program, according to the latest provisional figures.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan previously warned of “mass unemployment” when the leave program ends in September if no further action is taken to protect jobs.

Following his re-election in May, Mr Khan launched the £ 6million ‘Let’s Do London’ campaign which aims to attract domestic visitors to the capital over the next 12 months with the aim of supporting the cultural sectors , hospitality and retail in central London.

But although he said he was “optimistic” that London’s economy would rebound this year as Covid-19 restrictions relax, the mayor warned he would be “complacent” on the part of the government to expect employment levels to return to normal.

Last week, following the release of a city hall report that jobs in London would not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023, Sadiq Khan again called on the government to extend the regime to leave and warned that jobs in several key industries would “remain at risk” when it ends.

This morning Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said the government was “open” to extending the leave program beyond the current September end date following calls from the Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon to extend it “as long as necessary.”.