“UNVIABLE is no way to describe people or the businesses they work in which have been forced to shut down through no fault of their own.”

This is the feeling of the owner of a successful company in South East Cornwall whose operations have been severely curtailed by the coronavirus restrictions.

Jonathan Rowe runs a popular wedding venue at Trevenna, near St Neot. Fully booked with three weddings a week set to take place through 2020 and 2021, the business normally provides year-round employment for 32 people. It had to place all of them on furlough at the start of lockdown. As restrictions on ceremonies eased slightly, some of the team were able to return to work, but with weddings now limited to 15 guests, many couples have put their plans on hold.

Jonathan accepts that his business has been restricted for good reason to keep the transmission rate down – and he also accepts that furloughing cannot go on forever.

But he cannot accept that his talented staff and their roles are now, under the Chancellor’s new Job Support Scheme, classed as “unviable”.

“Most of our weddings between now and the end of April 2021 have been postponed,” he said. “Businesses that were viable, and will be once again once the Government gets a grip on the pandemic, have had to shut down.

“The effect of the new restrictions is a lockdown on our business.

“The new Job Support Top Up Scheme scheme does nothing for businesses and their employees that have been sacrificed due to the Government restrictions. This group of people are being cast off.”

Jonathan feels that what is needed is a rapid retraining strategy – treating people whose place of employment has had to shut temporarily as ‘available’ for other work, for instance in the Green economy.

“Employees are unlike machines which can be shut down and mothballed when in low demand on the factory line. Employees are people who can adapt, change and provide value to new projects. This is a golden opportunity.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in Exeter last week to announce an overhaul of the training and skills system in the UK, aimed at helping the country’s recovery from the pandemic.

From April 2021, adults who have not got A-Levels or equivalent will be able to access a fully-funded college course. Higher education loans for academic or vocational study will also be made more flexible, enabling people to spread study out over their lifetimes and retrain for different careers.

The Government says that as the work landscape changes, people will be supported to upskill and find new, well-paid work.

Mr Johnson said: “We cannot, alas, save every job. What we can do is give people the skills to find and create new and better jobs.”

At Trevenna, the launch of the new system in Spring 2021 will come just as Jonathan Rowe is looking to open up fully for weddings if he can – but in the meantime, his skilled employees may have had to move on.

“We must be prudent and carefully consider our staffing requirements for the next six months to remain successful when permitted to fully open again,” he said.

“The human side of it is really upsetting – it’s a lack of compassion for people that seem to have just been turfed out.”