The Hull Liberal Democrats have today (18/11/20) called for the Government to extend the Furlough job retention scheme until June.

All Councillors, except two Conservative Councillors, backed the call from Lib Dem Councillor Mark Ieronimo. It was agreed that the Council would write to the Chancellor calling for an extension to the Furlough scheme.
 
The Liberal Democrats believe businesses need more time to plan and the extension until June would allow for that. This call would be to extend furlough to last until June, in order to protect Hull's economy and lead the way in providing financial support to residents.

Following calls from the Hull Lib Dems, Hull City Council today backed the establishment of a local Test & Trace system for the city. 

Local Test & Trace systems have been rolled out in other local authority areas.  It would see the council take on the task of tracking down those residents of the city who the national system were unable to contact within 24 hours.

Responding to the news that as of today (11/11/20) Hull has the highest Coronavirus infection rate in the country, Leader of Hull City Council's Lib Dem Group Cllr Mike Ross said:

"This is the news we have all feared recently. This virus moves and spreads like no other and has left all of us in the city with a big battle ahead."

Liberal Democrats from across the North of England, including Lib Dem Leader in Hull Cllr Mike Ross, four council leaders, Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron, and Liberal Democrat Leader in the Lords Dick Newby, have written to the Prime Minister stating that the North has been "overlooked by a London-centric government". 

The letter calls for a raft measures to be implemented urgently to help stop the spread of the virus across vast swathes of the country.

Some of the measures include:

• Rapidly funding local authorities to enable a local scale-up of the failing test, trace and isolate system
• Increasing support for those who need to self-isolate and cannot work from home
• Expanding furlough support until June 2021