Nearly 40% Of Crawley's Workforce Could Be Unemployed By November, Councillor Says

Monday, 10 August 2020 18:21

By Karen Dunn - Local Democracy Reporter

Seventy-eight Crawley people have died due to Covid-19, and 461 have gone down with the virus.

The figures, which were correct as of Thursday (August 6) were shared by borough council leader Peter Lamb during his weekly online Q&A session.

The cases include 16 linked to The Downsman Pub, in Southgate, after an outbreak was reported in July.

Mr Lamb warned residents that no one was ready for a second wave of the pandemic and Crawley could not afford another year like 2020.

He said:

“No one in the country is ready for a second wave.

“We still haven’t got the money back from government we were promised with the first wave, which means we are not going to have the money to spend if the second wave comes.”

Some 40% of Crawley’s workforce is either furloughed, getting self-employment support or unemployed, and there is a £4m hole in the council’s £14m budget.

The unemployment figure currently stands at 7 per cent, which is exceptionally high for the airport town.

But the worrying thought is that, if nothing is done to help industries at Gatwick and Manor Royal to get back on their feet, most of that 40% could be out of work when the furlough scheme stops at the end of October.

Mr Lamb and MP Henry Smith have both appealed to the government for help to stop 70 years of the town’s economic success from being wiped out.

While the council has pulled out all the stops to help people during the pandemic – setting up a Help Hub to get food and medicine to the town’s most vulnerable residents and handing out millions in business grants to hundreds of firms – there was an air of frustration from the leader.

Mr Lamb said:

“The thing which really gets to me is that we’ve had enormous costs involved in tackling Covid so far and the reality of all of this is that, if we go back in, it will all have been for nothing.

“Particularly if there is a far worse spike – and it’s a far worse spike because we haven’t done the things we were supposed to do to deal with it towards the beginning.

“But a vaccine is on the way. If we get that, we can start building up the immunity we need.

“We really can’t afford another year of this.”