Speaking at a joint media briefing, with Steve Rotheram the Metro Mayor of Liverpool City, Andy Burnham said that Greater Manchester would not accept the tier 3 restrictions if the Government did not improve financial support.
Burnham suggested that the support necessary was an 80% furlough scheme for the industries worst affected by the restrictions as well as substantial support for businesses and self-employed workers.
Figures were produced as to what could exactly happen to Greater Manchester’s workforce if the tier 3 restrictions were put into place.
If the regions 1,900 pubs were to close it would affect 20,000 workers and it is suggested that the 187,000 self-employed workers in Greater Manchester would see indirect impacts.
Burnham was speaking alongside Rotheram who has seen his region be placed in the highest tier of restrictions. The Metro Mayor of Liverpool City said that the ‘tier 3 was done to us rather than done with us’.
Rotheram went on to say that Liverpool now has tier 3 restrictions in place and they are the law and the public should abide by them.
He also expressed his disappointment at the scenes in Liverpool last night where big groups gathered before the lockdown came into action and some gyms refused to close.
Highlighting the severity of the problem in Liverpool and reiterating the need for the new restrictions he revealed that Liverpool City had the highest amount of patients in their hospitals in the UK and was the third-highest in Europe.
There was an agreement between the pair that the Government need to offer more support to the areas with the strictest restrictions in place.
Burnham reported figures that stated 59% of business were reporting reduced sales, rising to 73% in the hospitality sector. 11.3% of business also reported that they had or were considering redundancies.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester also highlighted that without the financial support needed the pandemic will have a mental health crisis due to peoples concerns about their jobs and further welfare.
Rotheram also said that if Government will not save local jobs that local leaders would do.
