CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak has vowed to do “whatever it takes” to help the country survive the coronavirus crisis.

Measures include offering government-backed loan guarantees worth £330 billion to support businesses, and a three month mortgage holiday for home-owners.

Sunak also promised to extend a year-long business rates holiday to all firms in the hospitality sector and funding grants of up to £25,000 for smaller businesses.

The smallest businesses in the country will be able to seek grants worth £10,000. 

Speaking at the UK government’s daily press coronavirus conference, Sunak said: “We have never in peacetime faced an emergency like this.”

He added: “This struggle will not be overcome by a single package of measures or isolated interventions. It will be won through a collective national effort, every one of us doing all we can to protect family, neighbours, friends, jobs.

“This national effort will be underpinned by government interventions in the economy on a scale unimaginable only a few weeks ago. We have never faced an economic fight like this one. But we are prepared, we will get through this, and we will do whatever it takes.”

Asked why he was offering loans rather than grants to companies, Sunak said: “We’ve worked on a very particular financing scheme with the Bank of England, again showing that the two arms of economic policy can work together to provide support.

“And you can benchmark what we’re doing with other countries around the world.

“Loan schemes are important because ultimately businesses need to have liquidity to get through what is a difficult bridge, but we have unveiled what I think would benchmark as a very comprehensive and sizeable package of direct fiscal support for business through tax reliefs and cash grants.”

Sunak also insisted that the government would “go further with regard to employment support and supporting people’s jobs and incomes” and he promised that would involve working “business and the unions”.

Meanwhile, standing alongside the Chancellor, Boris Johnson told reporters: “We must act like any wartime government and do whatever it takes to support our economy.

“We must support millions of businesses and tens of millions of families and individuals through the coming months. And to do that the government machine must and will respond with a profound sense of urgency. Thousands of brilliant officials are already working round the clock but we must do more and faster.”

The Prime Minister also warned that Covid-19 is so "dangerous" that without drastic action it will "overwhelm the NHS", as he warned that more "extreme measures" may be needed to protect lives in the future.