Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced big plans to manage the financial burden of the global COVID-19 outbreak.
Here’s a summary of the changes:
Coronavirus response
* £5bn emergency response fund to support the NHS and other public services
* Statutory sick pay will be paid to all those who choose to self-isolate, even if they don’t have symptoms
* Contributory employment Support Allowance benefit claimants will be able to claim sick pay on day one, not after a week
* £500m hardship fund to help vulnerable people
* Firms with fewer than 250 staff will be refunded for sick pay payments for two weeks
* Small firms will be able to access “business interruption” loans of up to £1.2m
* Business rates will be abolished for firms in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors with a rateable value below £51,000
Personal taxation and wages
* National Insurance Contributions tax threshold to rise from £8,632 to £9,500 – saving people just over £100 a year
* 0.5% VAT on women’s sanitary products, the tampon tax, to be scrapped
Alcohol, tobacco and fuel
* Fuel duty for be frozen for the 10th consecutive year
* Duties on spirits, beer, cider and wine to be frozen
* Business rate discounts for pubs to rise from £1,000 to £5,000 this year
Business, digital and science
* System business rates to be reviewed later this year
* Entrepreneurs’ Relief will be retained, but lifetime allowance will be reduced from £10m to £1m
* £5bn to get gigabit-capable broadband into the hardest to reach places
* Science Institute in Weybridge, Surrey to get a £1.4bn funding boost
* An extra £900m for research into nuclear fusion, space and electric vehicles.
The state of the economy
* Economy predicted to grow 1.1% this year, not taking into account the impact of coronavirus
* Annual output forecast to be 1.8% in 2021-22, 1.5% in 2022-23 and 1.3% in 2023-24
* Inflation forecast of 1.4% this year, increasing to 1.8% in 2021-2022
Environment and energy
* Plastic packaging tax to come into force from April 2022
* Manufacturers and importers whose products have less than 30% recyclable material will be charged £200 per tonne
* Fuel subsidies for off-road vehicles – known as red diesel – will be scrapped “for most sectors” in two years time
* Farmers and rail operators will be excluded
* £120m in emergency relief for communities affected by this winter’s flooding and £200m for flood resilience
* Total investment in flood defences to be doubled to £5.2bn over next five years
* £640m “nature for climate fund” to protect natural habitats, including 30,000 hectares of new trees
Transport, infrastructure and housing
* More than £600bn is set to be spent on roads, rail, broadband and housing by the middle of 2025
* Ministers say this represents the largest capital investment in infrastructure for generations
* £2.5bn will be made available to fix potholes and resurface roads over five years
The state of the public finances
* Public sector net borrowing set to rise this year to 2.1% of GDP, rising to 2.4% and 2.8% in subsequent years
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