Eat Out to Help Out: £10 OFF, Get 50% OFF Home Services too

So, the hospitality industry has been singled out to receive help to the tune of an estimated £500 million quid with Rishi Sunak’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ scheme, launched this week, and set to run through August. The idea is to help kick start the economy while saving up to 1.3 million jobs in catering. It’s gone down a storm this week but not everyone’s happy. The scheme’s flawed and open to abuse…another initiative rushed through ‘on the hoof’ without proper consultation; I read somewhere that it was made public before it had been signed off by Jim Harra, boss of HMRC, who’d raised questions. It’ll be interesting to see if this is yet another gross miscalculation on Sunak’s part. Restaurants and pubs have been heaving all week, with some like the Westleigh Inn near Bideford in North Devon pulling out of the scheme, unable to cope. (Am I alone in thinking Why Bother Going To The South West At All? A few weeks ago council chiefs were telling us all to Stay Away, now businesses themselves are complaining about ‘over tourism’, is there any pleasing these people? We suggest you Stay Local). The logic of it all defies comprehension. While High Streets the length & breadth of Britain are overflowing with revellers sat cheek by jowl, qualified beauticians & similar trades have been forbidden to work, with just 24 hours notice of a two week postponement for re-opening due to a ‘spike’ in new Covid cases. Locally, a Health Chief lectured us over risks of ignoring social distancing rules, pointing to a ‘spike’ this week in the Hartlepool area of wait for it………………FOUR cases. Anyway, if you’re one of the millions who have saved £30 – £40 on a meal for a family this week, FAIRPLAY TO YOU. We managed to get out ourselves; fitting in with a daughter who’s been mega busy herself, working extra hours at a local hotel overseeing an influx of diners.

Sunak’s £10 Eat Out To Help Out deal meant 50% off the bill for many patrons. People love a bargain and the crowded scenes this week are testament to that, however the offer ends at the end of the month. Some say it’s more Smoke & Mirrors from a Government on the ropes desperate to get the economy going again. Check out this amusing article in the Guardian this week..which highlights other burning issues too, well worth a read. Our mission at potless.co.uk is to help people with ‘the little things in life’….little jobs, tasks, errands etc that people want done but don’t think anybody’s interested in doing; OR, they don’t know where to look to find people to help them. While out on the street campaigning for potless, the team have spoken to large numbers of people, many down on their luck, struggling with job loss, furlough, uncertainty, and lack of money. Sunak’s 50% off scheme is all very well for people who can afford to go out in the first place, however, there are millions not so fortunate. We’ve spoken to folk wanting doors fitting, gates and fences repaired, gardens cleared, rubbish collected, cars fixed, holes in walls repaired, cheap flat pack furniture assembled, help with local house moves, people wanting stuff picked up who can’t afford the time to wait for service at places like Screwfix …..all manner of jobs & services wanted by people seeking help at reasonable rates or even for FREE.

#GiveWorkToTheOutOfWork

But here’s the thing….’trades’ sites are advertising on Gumtree for new service providers to sign up and earn anything from £10 to £44+ an hour; Some of these platforms are collecting huge fees from members…we had a painter who’d paid £12+ to a big American site just to view our contact details; we’d posted decorating work before potless was launched. In essence, by using potless.co.uk to find help with little jobs, home services, errands, bigger jobs (there’s no upper limit on jobs you can post or bid for) you can SAVE 50% or more every day by cutting out greedy middlemen, (many jobs are FREE to post, & when fees are charged they’re mostly no more than 99p) shunning big US corporations and using local people perfectly capable of performing your tasks but who don’t want to make it their everyday living. Eat Out To Help Out has a nice ‘ring’ to it; it kinda rolls off the tongue. I would imagine Her Majesty’s Government will have paid PR consultants a small fortune to come up with the slogan. We’ve invented one of our own. We’re calling it ‘Give Work To The Out Of Work’. Join it all up and stick a # in front of it and let’s start promoting it, so people can find help with all manner of things for about 50% less than anywhere else. Simon Henig leader of Durham County Council said this week that ‘it is ‘vital’ ministers funnel cash to the areas most in need’ in response to research that suggests 58.55 per cent of jobs in County Durham are considered vulnerable, making it the fifth worst affected county area. potless.co.uk foresaw this way back in February, but it seems the penny’s just dropping in the halls of Government & County Halls. The past few days have seen several reports of ‘growing alarm’ about the extent of job losses, so do your bit. Support our ‘Give Work To The Out Of Work’ hashtag. We Want People Like You so if you’ve got something you need doing, post the job, task or errand on our platform and SAVE MONEY while HELPING OTHERS, Help for Hire, Help for FREE, Barter. Until next time, I’m Jeremy Potter MD at potless.co.uk, Enjoy your weekend, and lets all work for a brighter future…..

PS: Missed out this week? Support Local Business and Eat Out To Help Out next week at a hostelry somewhere near YOU! Book it NOW.