THE Labour Candidate for Tees Valley Mayor has outlined what she wants to see in today's Budget - which The Chancellor is due to start in half an hour.

Jessie Joe Jacobs, said she wanted the furlough scheme to be extended to ease businesses back and protect jobs

She said: "The Chancellor must extend the furlough scheme beyond the planned June cut-off. Many businesses have been devastated by a traumatic year and the people they employ remain in a very precarious place and have the anxiety of that date hanging over their heads .

"Many Tees firms, large and small, will suffer an economic long Covid and they will need all the help they can to battle back. Key to that will be supporting the staff who have been furloughed while firms readjust and reopen.

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"We can't afford to risk the future of firms by pulling the rug from under their workers now. I would like to see something concrete for the excluded too, the millions of self employed who never qualified for furlough or government support."

Ms Jacobs also said she wanted to see an extension of the Universal Credit uplift 'so the poorest don't feel the economic aftershock'.

She said: "The rise was small and temporary but it recognised that the poorest people and families in society needed extra help to get through the Covid crisis. They still do.

"Their pressing financial need won't vanish just because the Tory government sets a date to declare the crisis over. The government needs to show compassion.

"To tell people in dire need that a vital little extra will be taken away is cruel and unjustified. The challenges of low wages, no wages and food poverty haven't gone away."

Funds to help revive high streets, is also high on Ms Jacobs' list.

She said: "High streets are the beating hearts of our communities and they must be helped to recover and flourish as part of a brighter future. Our town centres have been allowed to wither with 10 years of Tory austerity and cuts to local government and services.

"Shops are shuttered and great building are empty and unloved. We need to make these places to be proud of again. We need to attract new life and new businesses to make the high street a thriving hub once more.

"We need vibrant town centres with a great mix of retail, leisure and hospitality. That's right at the heart of my vision to make the Tees a great place to live and work in. I'm backing local business and local people to make our home a better place and the government should too.

"The Government must make available a billion pound recovery fund specifically to stem the decay and spark a revival of the high streets in our forgotten towns. We need the political courage to do the right thing.

She also said that she wanted 'concrete plans to tackle unemployment'.

"After a decade of Tory austerity and cuts, the Tees was already among the worst areas in the country for unemployment but Covid has really pushed that to crisis levels," she said, "so many firms, small and large, closed down or laid off staff and others cut back to the bare minimum to get through lockdowns. We need to act now to head off a long covid legacy of misery."