Chancellor unveils £30 billion giveaway, including VAT cut and meal vouchers

It wasn’t called a budget, but with the raft of measures was much bigger than most fiscal statements.

For the next six months, VAT is being cut from 20 to 5 per cent across the tourism and hospitality industries, and to encourage us all to eat out, there’s a 50 per cent discount up to £10 a head on any meal at any participating restaurant, cafe or pub on Monday to Wednesdays throughout August.

Firms will receive a £1,000 jobs retention bonus for every furloughed worker who is retained through to the end of January next year, and employers who create new jobs for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit and at risk of long term unemployment will receive grants up to £6,500.

There is also a cut in stamp duty, but alongside the giveaways, the Chancellor warned action would be needed, possibly this Autumn, to put the public finances back on a sustainable setting.