London, Apr 21 (IANS): UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that 140,000 companies have applied for help to pay furloughed staff just hours after the government scheme opened.

Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the government will cover 80 per cent of workers' wages, up to 2,500 pounds a month, if they were put on leave, the BBC reported.

Millions of workers are expected to be "furloughed" because of the lockdown.

Speaking at the No 10 daily press briefing on Monday, Sunak said 140,000 companies had applied to HMRC's scheme since it launched to the public at 8 a.m., which equates to the wages of over 1 million people, who will receive 80 per cent of their salary while they're furloughed during lockdown and otherwise "would have been at risk of losing their job", reports the Metro newspaper.

The Indian-origin Chancellor said firms should get the money in six working days to pay employees and will be sent updates.

He said that "we have never seen an economic crisis like this one" and directly thanked the thousands of staff at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and HM Treasury (HMT) "who have worked tirelessly to make the scheme happen".

Sunak also launched two initiatives on Monday "to support the most innovative firms in the country" worth 1.25 billion pounds, said the newspaper report.

He said the first 500 million pounds scheme, called the ‘Future Fund', will make sure that "high growth" companies can continue to access the crucial investment they need during the lockdown.

The scheme will launch in May and will provide U- based early stage companies with convertible loans between 125,000-5 million pounds.

The second scheme will provide 750 million pounds in grants and loans for "tens of thousands of highly innovative firms in every sector, every region and every nation of the UK".