UK Chancellor: we can't save every job

The UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Thursday warned that certain jobs "are at risk" if the economy does not return to normal as the country relaxes lockdown restrictions.

The country began easing lockdown restrictions on certain businesses, including pubs and restaurants, on 4 July, with the government promoting a campaign to get the public to eat and drink out to help the economy.

Speaking to UK broadcaster Sky before touring a Bosch factory in Worcester, the Chancellor warned of "difficult times ahead" as the country enters into what he called "a very significant recession".

"We won't know the exact shape of that recovery for a little while. How will people respond to the new freedoms, to being able to go out and about again? And we have to rediscover behaviours that we have essentially unlearned over the past few months", the Chancellor said, adding "unless activity returns to normal, those risks, those jobs are at risk of going."

The government has released details of incentives to get the public to spend money in shops and restaurants, with offers of vouchers for certain establishments.

It has also released details of a temporary pause on stamp duty, the tax on purchasing a house, for the first £500,000 (632,000 US dollars) of any property purchase.

Sunak told Sky News he hoped the pause in stamp duty would "generates economic activity" by promoting house building, saying the change would "catalyse our activity and ultimately protect and create jobs in that sector."