West Devon MPs and businesses have welcomed news that the Government’s furlough scheme is being extended until the end of October.

Workers on furlough will continue to receive 80% of their current salary up to £2,500, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced last week. And from the start of August, workers on furlough will be able to return to work part-time, with employers to be asked to pay a percentage towards their salaries.

The chancellor said he wanted to ‘avoid a cliff edge and get people back to work in a measured way’.

The flexiblity has been welcomed by business organisations, allowing businesses and the economy to recover step-by-step.

The scheme will continue in its current form until the end of July, with the Government promising to release further detail about the changes from August by the end of this month.

Torridge and West Devon MP Geoffrey Cox said: ‘I am pleased that the chancellor has extended the Job Retention Scheme.

‘This will help millions keep their jobs while the Covid-19 emergency continues and is a sign that the Government intends to do all it can to help people through these extraordinary times.’

Central Devon MP Mel Stride also welcomed the anouncement, although he also expressed concern that some people were still ineligible for support.

Mr Stride said: ‘The extension of the furlough scheme, allowing furloughed employees to work part-time, and with employers asked to contribute are all welcome steps from the chancellor.

‘The devil though will be in the detail, which will be set out later this month when the treasury committee looks forward to carefully scrutinising these changes.

‘The chancellor also said that there will be no changes to the scheme until July. This will be worrying for those who continue to fall through the gaps of the Government’s support measures such as the lack of furlough support to help cover dividend income generated through self-employment.’

Among businesses in West Devon which has seen the benefit of the Government scheme is Lawsons, which has a hardware store in Tavistock and three others locally.

Managing director Liz Lawson said: ‘This is a great help to us. As we are a hardware shop we have been trading throughout the lockdown as the Government asked us to stay open. Initially we had to close our doors to the customers and traded over the phone and online with home delivery to help people stay safe.

‘This meant we only needed a fraction of our normal staff; so those who we would have laid off were furloughed. It has also helped for those staff who have had to care for their children, who are not in school and those you are moderately vulnerable who need to self isolate to stay safe and well.

‘We are now open again but still need to keep staff numbers low to help with social distancing in the store, so the Job Retention Scheme is still helping us.

‘We will be bringing more staff back to work as the Government starts lifting restrictions and we get steadily busier. We would like to say a big thank you to all our customers who have supported us over the last few weeks.’