Budget Shows Conservatives' Commitment to Protecting Jobs and Livelihoods as we Build our Future Economy

Budget 2021

• The Budget delivers on commitment to provide security and stability to the British people through the pandemic – providing over £407 billion of support for families, jobs and businesses over this year and next.
• Key measures include extending furlough to the end of September, two further grants for the self-employed, a six month extension to the Universal Credit uplift, and new grants and loans for businesses.
• Announcements to build the economy include 45 new Town Deals, eight freeports, and a new Help to Grow scheme to boost the productivity of small businesses – delivering on the Conservatives’ agenda to level up across the country and build back better from the pandemic.

Alex Burghart MP has welcomed the Spring Budget which provides billions of pounds to support businesses and families through the pandemic, delivers on the Conservatives’ promises it has made to the British people and invests in the UK’s future economy.

On Wednesday, the Government set out an ambitious plan that focuses on supporting people and businesses through this moment of crisis – well beyond the end of the roadmap – to ensure they have the security and stability they need.

At the heart of the Budget are measures to build our future economy, levelling up across all regions of the United Kingdom and spreading opportunity everywhere.

As part of the Government’s commitments to fund the nation’s priorities, the Budget confirmed:

1. 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 will also be available to self-employed people – and the newly self-employed will also be eligible for both grants.
2. A continuation of the temporary Universal Credit uplift for a further six months. The Budget also confirms 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.
3. New Recovery Loans and a new Restart grant of up to £18,000 to help businesses as they reopen. Support for the sports, arts and culture sectors will also be increased by a further £700 million as they begin to reopen.
4. Extending the business rates holiday, VAT cut and stamp duty holiday. There will also be a new mortgage guarantee scheme from April which backs 95 per cent mortgages – helping those with smaller deposits.
5. Opening up the new Levelling Up Fund for its first round of bids, worth £4.8 billion across the United Kingdom. The Budget also announces 45 new Town Deals to help spread opportunity across the country.
6. Announcing the locations of eight freeports in England, which will encourage free trade and bring investment to all regions of the country through lower taxes and cheaper customs.
7. Launching the first ever UK Infrastructure Bank – located in Leeds – to invest in public and private projects to drive green growth and create green jobs.
8. A new Help to Grow scheme to boost productivity of small businesses, to ensure they are embracing the latest technology and management training.
9. Being honest with the British people about the need to fix the public finances. We are standing by our manifesto pledge not to increase Income Tax, NICs or VAT and we are freezing alcohol duty, and fuel duty for the 11th year in a row. However to fix the public finances, corporation tax on large company profits will increase to 25 per cent in 2023. This will be tapered and 70 per cent of businesses will be completely unaffected.
10. The Budget will strengthen all four parts of the United Kingdom, with bespoke schemes for each nation confirmed additional funding for Scotland (£1.2 billion), Wales (£740 million), and Northern Ireland (£410 million).

Commenting, Alex Burghart MP said:

Today’s Budget provides businesses and families in Brentwood and Ongar with the support and reassurance they need to get through the pandemic.

By the same token, I am thrilled that this Conservative Government is making good on its promises  by building our future economy and investing in every corner of the United Kingdom."

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."

You can also watch a video message by the Chancellor on 11 things to note from the Budget here.

Budget 2021: East of England

• One year ago, we promised the British people we would do whatever it takes to provide security and stability. We are delivering on that promise: over this year and next, we are providing £407 billion of support for families, jobs and businesses, more than almost any other country in the world.
• Despite this unprecedented support, the damage coronavirus has done to our economy has been acute. Since March, 700,000 people have lost their jobs, the economy has shrunk by 10 per cent – the largest fall on record – and our borrowing is at the highest it has ever been outside of wartime.
• Today’s Budget protects the jobs and livelihoods of the British people with a three-part plan:

1. Supporting people and businesses through this moment of crisis.
2. Beginning to fix the public finances with a fair and honest plan about how to do so.
3. Building our future economy

• As the IMF, Bank of England and OBR have all confirmed: our plan is working. As a result of our interventions, unemployment is now estimated to peak at far lower levels than previously expected, and our economy is now forecast to recover faster than previously thought as well.

We have supported the East of England throughout the pandemic:

• We have supported 880,000 jobs in the East of England through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
• We have supported over 270,000 self-employed workers in the East of England with over £2.1 billion through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
• We have supported over 145,000 businesses in the East of England with over £5.9 billion in loans through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

Supporting households in the East of England:

• Up to 400,000 households in the East of England will benefit from the continuation of the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit until October. This will be worth £500 over six months. We are alsos making a one-off payment of £500 to eligible Working Tax Credits claimants, to provide additional support over the next six months. Around 115,000 households in the East of England will be eligible to benefit from this.
• The Mortgage Guarantee Scheme will help home buyers with smaller deposits across the UK to buy their own home.
• The 85 per cent of households in the East of England who on a car will benefit from a fuel duty freeze.

The East of England will benefit from targeted support for local priorities

• Announcing the locations of eight freeports in England, including Felixstowe and Harwich in the East of England. To encourage free trade and bring investment to all regions of the country through lower taxes and cheaper customs, we are today revealing the locations of the first eight freeports in England: Teesside, Humberside, Felixstowe and Harwich, Thames Gateway, Solent, Plymouth, Liverpool and the East Midlands.
• Levelling up our country and spreading opportunity everywhere. Today we are announcing six Town Deals with Lowestoft, Colchester, Stevenage, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, and Milton Keynes. These towns will benefit from £148 million from the Towns Fund. The fund will support their long-term economic and social regeneration as well as their immediate recovery from the impacts of coronavirus.
• Nine local authorities in the East of England will be priority places for the £220 million Community Renewal Fund, which will invest in people, communities and businesses across the UK. We are launching the prospectus for the Community Renewal Fund at Budget.
• Investing in flood defences. The next £5.2 billion Flood and Coastal Defence programme kickstarts in April. Including the replacement of the Rammey Sluice in Waltham Abbey that will better protect 171 homes from flooding.
• Supporting the aviation industry. Cambridge, Luton, Norwich, Southend and Stansted airports will benefit from Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme extension and will help support their fixed costs, such as business rates. The freeze in air passenger duty for short-haul flights will benefit flights departing from the East of England, while the long-haul economy rate will only increase by £2.

Investing in people, jobs and communities through national programmes:

• Extending the business rates holiday. Last year we provided an unprecedented 100 per cent business rates holiday for all eligible businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors – a tax cut worth £10 billion. This year, we will continue that 100 per cent holiday for the first three months until June, before cutting rates by two-thirds for the remaining nine months, up to a maximum £2 million per business. That means the vast majority of businesses will receive a 75 per cent cut in their bill next year – a tax cut worth £6 billion.
• Extending the VAT cut. To protect the 150,000 hospitality and tourism businesses which employ around 2.4 million jobs and have been hardest hit, we are extending the 5 per cent reduced rate of VAT for a further six months until the end of September. The rate will then increase to 12.5 per cent from October until the end of March, before returning to the normal 20 per cent rate from April 1. Overall, that’s a tax cut of nearly £5 billion next year.
• Delivering new Recovery Loans to replace our existing loan schemes. Our schemes have provided £70 billion of support to 1.5 million companies. But as these come to an end, we are introducing new Recovery Loans to take their place: loans from £25,000 up to £10 million, with an 80 per cent government guarantee.
• Helping people to get better skills for them to get better jobs. We have already launched the Restart scheme to help hundreds of thousands of long term unemployed; doubled the number of Work Coaches; introduced the Lifetime Skills Guarantee to fund Level 3 Qualifications for all adults; and launched the Kickstart scheme to help 250,000 young people into work. Today we go further by doubling the incentive payment to small businesses to take on apprentices of any age to £3,000, alongside £126 million to triple the number of traineeships next year.
• Freezing the Aggregates Levy, which will benefit around 141 quarrying sites in the East of England.

This builds on existing measures benefiting the East of England:

• 6 hospitals being built in the East of England, with the continued growth of medical undergraduate degree places, with an additional 162 places in the East of England compared to 2017-18.
• The East of England will benefit from nearly £800 million in funding across 15 projects, as part of the Housing Infrastructure Fund. Projects include Cambridge Northern Fringe East, where £227 million funding is being provided for the relocation of a wastewater treatment plant in order to unlock nearly 9,000 homes on a major brownfield site.
• The East of England will benefit from major works on the A12, A47, A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet.

ENDS