Today’s three-part Spring Budget will support people and businesses in Thirsk and Malton through a moment of deep crisis, will begin to fix the public finances with a fair and honest plan and will support the work of building the UK economy whilst levelling up across all the regions. The news that the Treasury is moving to Darlington, the UK Investment Bank will be based in Leeds and Teesside is to become one of the eight freeports shows that the Government really means business about levelling up and will provide knock on benefits for the whole region. As an MP who has been fighting, since I was elected, to ensure that the North has its fair share this comes as particularly welcome news.
The key measures include:
- An extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of September ensuring it continues to support employers as they begin to reopen.
- Two further grants for self-employed people, with the newly self-employed also eligible for both grants.
- A continuation of the temporary Universal Credit uplift for a further six months.
- New support for providing young people with new skills, including doubling the incentive payment to SMEs to take on apprentices of any age to £3,000, and £126 million to triple the number of traineeships next year.
- New Recovery Loans and a new Restart grant of up to £18,000 to help businesses as they reopen.
- Extension of the business rates holiday, VAT cut and stamp duty holiday.
- New mortgage guarantee scheme from April which backs 95 per cent mortgages, helping first time buyers with smaller deposits.
- Opening up the new Levelling Up Fund for its first round of bids, worth £4.8 billion across the United Kingdom.
- 45 new Town Deals to help spread opportunity across the country.
- 8 freeports in England to encourage free trade and bring investment to all regions of the country through lower taxes and cheaper customs.
- The first ever UK Infrastructure Bank, located in Leeds to invest in public and private projects to drive green growth and create green jobs.
- A new Help to Grow scheme to boost productivity of small businesses to ensure they are embracing the latest technology and management training.
- No increase Income Tax, NICs or VAT and personal tax allowances at current levels from 2023 to 2026.
- Alcohol duty, and fuel duty frozen for the 11th year in a row.
- Support for the sports, arts and culture sectors by a further £700 million as they begin to reopen.
- Corporation tax on large company profits will increase to 25 per cent in 2023 but this will be tapered and 70 per cent of businesses will be completely unaffected.
I think this was a brilliant Budget by a brilliant Chancellor. It provides businesses and families in Thirsk and Malton with the support and reassurance they need to get through the pandemic. It’s been a tough year and many people are understandably still very worried about their future. With £407 billion of support for families, jobs and businesses, it is right that the Chancellor was honest with the British people about our public finances and sets out a clear and fair route to recovery. It is tough, but we will recover and I am particularly heartened by the fact that that this Conservative Government is now making good on its promise to build our future economy and investing in every corner of the United Kingdom, especially the North.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP said “Throughout this pandemic, my top priority has been to protect jobs, businesses and livelihoods. Today’s Budget reaffirms this commitment, with £407 billion to support the British people this year and next as one of the largest, most comprehensive and sustained responses this country has ever seen. It is thanks to successive Conservative governments that we have been able to respond to this crisis as boldly as we have. But we need to be honest about the challenges facing our public finances, and how we will begin to fix them. As we look ahead, this Budget lays the foundations of our future economy, driving up productivity, creating green jobs, supporting small businesses, and levelling up across the entire United Kingdom”.
