A St Albans MP is calling on the Government to bring forward more support packages to help avoid potential job losses in the district.

Liberal Democrat MP Daisy Cooper has warned that thousands of families face "financial uncertainty" as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and says more help is needed.

The St Albans District Council said it has distributed £17 million of Government grants to businesses in the district back in April and said more than £1 million was to be spread out to small businesses last month.

The Government also introduced the Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employed Income Support Scheme to help workers financially throughout lockdown.

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But Mrs Cooper said she wants packages of support for key sectors such as hospitality.

She also highlighted that statutory sick pay should be increased to £220 a week to help people who need to self-isolate and to ensure workers "don't have to choose between their health and their income".

According to Government data, 10,600 people in St Albans have benefitted from the job retention scheme and a further 3700 are receiving financial support through the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme.

Mrs Cooper said: "The furlough scheme continues to be a lifeline for many but I worry what will happen to people here in St Albans who on furlough support if it ends before it's safe to go back to work or when businesses need to reopen below capacity or in a phased way.

"Ministers must extend support to the millions of people who are still excluded from the existing schemes, such as ’no rights employees’ – freelances who are taxed at source like an employee but who currently receive no financial support at all, and those who recently became self-employed, and those between jobs and more.

"The big danger is that many parts of our economy will simply not be back up to speed by October.

"The Government must bring forward bespoke packages of support for the industries most affected, to save jobs and prevent mass unemployment."