For Dominic Ponniah, the chief executive and co-founder of Cleanology, a commercial cleaning company headquartered in London, the winding down of the furlough scheme yesterday was cause for celebration.
Like many other business owners, Ponniah praised Rishi Sunak’s popular scheme, which has helped to pay the wages of 11.6 million workers at a cost of nearly £70 billion. In March 2020, 85 per cent of Cleanology’s staff were on furlough. This was reduced gradually to 5 per cent before the scheme ended yesterday. “All of them are returning to their normal locations from tomorrow or we have found new locations for them to work at,” Ponniah said.
