Rishi Sunak unveils 330-billion pound rescue package in coronavirus fight

Britain's Indian-origin finance minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday unveiled a "bold" rescue package to help UK businesses and the economy survive the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer joined British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his daily briefing from 10 Downing Street in London to announce that he is making available 330 billion pounds of loan guarantees to businesses to help them meet their day to day needs amid the ongoing near-lockdown.

"The coronavirus pandemic is a global health emergency but it is also an economic emergency. We have never in peacetime faced an economic fight like this one," said Sunak, who acknowledged that people's anxiety about the disease is matched by their anxiety about their livelihoods and therefore "unimaginable" level of intervention is required.

"This is not a time for ideology or orthodoxy. This is a time to be bold. A time for courage," he said, adding that he will do "whatever it takes" to support people's jobs and incomes.

As part of his bailout package, Sunak extended a business rates holiday to all businesses in the retail and hospitality sector for 12 months as well as a cash grant to help them survive and said any business that needs help will be able to access a loan on attractive terms.

An agreed facility with the Bank of England will help support liquidity amongst larger firms and for smaller firms, the business interruption loan scheme will be extended to offer loans of up to 5 million pounds.

Mortgage lenders will give a three-month mortgage holiday to people who need help and there will also be special help for airlines, hit particularly hard as a result of travel restrictions around the world.

"Yes this enemy can be deadly, but it is also beatable and we know how to beat it and we know that if as a country we follow the scientific advice that is now being given we know that we will beat it," Johnson said, as he reiterated Monday's advice for everyone to avoid unnecessary social contact and travel.

"We must act like any wartime government and do whatever it takes to support our economy," he said.

The near-lockdown in place across the UK to tackle the spread of COVID-19, which has claimed 55 lives in the UK, has threatened the closure of large numbers of businesses in the country, including pubs, bars and restaurants.

The new financial package announced by Sunak builds on the 12 billion pounds he had set out last week in his first Budget in the House of Commons, when he suspended business rates for many firms in England, put in an emergency temporary loan facility in place, extended statutory sick pay for workers, set up a "hardship fund" for local authorities and boosted NHS funding.

Johnson said: "As time goes on we will learn more and more about the disease and the effects of our actions. And while we need national unity, we also need international cooperation. And although we now need to impose physical distance between ourselves, we must at the same time have closer social support for each other."