The Chancellor of the Exchequer has revealed plans to support "viable jobs" for the next six months.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Rishi Sunak has outlined the Government's Jobs Support Scheme.

The Chancellor announced that the furlough scheme will end, however a new scheme would be introduced to protect "viable jobs".

He said: "There's no harder choice than the decision to end the furlough scheme, it was the right policy at the time when we introduced it to protect millions of jobs.

"But as the economy reopens, it would be fundamentally wrong to hold people in jobs that only exist inside furlough."

The new Jobs Support Scheme would consist of three aspects:

- Employees will be able to work a third of their hours. For the hours they have not worked, a third of their wage will be paid between the Government and the employer. This means workers would get at least two thirds of their wage.

- The support will target firms who need it the most. All small and medium enterprises will be eligible, but larger businesses will only be eligible if their turnover has fallen.

- The scheme is open to employers across the UK, even if they didn't use the furlough scheme.

The scheme will be extended to self-employed people.

The Chancellor also announced a Pay as You Grow scheme, designed to give more time to businesses to repay loans and VAT bills.

Mr Sunak also extended the VAT cut for hospitality and tourism sector until March 31.

Firms working in this sector will pay only five per cent VAT until that date, instead of 20 per cent.

Previous plans would have seen businesses starting to pay full VAT from January.