£200 high-street vouchers to be given to every household in Northern Ireland

Money will be put onto cards that can be spent in shops as part of plans to boost the economy

The scheme is intended to increase retailers’ business (PA)

Hundreds of thousands of households in Northern Ireland are to be given vouchers worth £200 to help boost spending on high streets and save struggling retailers.

The scheme, which is similar to a successful initiative in Jersey, is expected to begin in January. All households will be eligible, regardless of their income.  

Money will be put onto a card that can be used in high-street shops for a limited time.

“It's not meant to support households, it's meant to stimulate growth on the high street,” finance minister Conor Murphy told assembly members.

Aodhán Connolly, of the NI Retail Consortium, welcomed the announcement, saying it would “create a virtuous circle of spending that will support retailers in the leaner months of January and February, as well as being of huge benefit to those households whose budgets are already squeezed”.

Stormont ministers are also ring-fencing £150m to provide businesses with rates relief and £20m for company directors who have been excluded from support for the self-employed.

The measures are aimed at supporting businesses that will be hurt by new restrictions coming in on Friday when non-essential shops will close for two weeks.

In response to the announcement, Scottish retailers renewed their calls for a voucher scheme to be introduced in Scotland.

In July, the Resolution Foundation recommended a high-street voucher scheme offering £500 per person to help boost spending after the first lockdown.

Rishi Sunak is considering ways to lift the economy, and he is looking at schemes in the vein of Eat Out to Help Out, which gave diners discounts on their restaurant bills in August.  

The chancellor is also expected to announce a pay freeze or a cap on wage rises for millions of public-sector workers this week as he lays out spending plans for Whitehall departments.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a huge hit to the economy, partly because demand for goods and services has reduced as people have seen their earnings fall, while others are worried about their future finances or the virus.

Consumer spending picked up last month, and was higher than in October last year. While online retailers enjoyed bumper sales, traditional shops have suffered. In England, non-essential stores have been ordered to shut under tougher lockdown rules which threaten to cut into Christmas trading that many retailers rely on for their survival.