Trudy has welcomed today’s Spring Budget which provides billions of pounds to support businesses and families.
Today, 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 on the 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.
6. 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.
7. A new Help to Grow scheme to boost productivity of small businesses, to ensure they are embracing the latest technology and management training.
8. Being honest with the British people about the need to fix the public finances. The Governing has committed itself to its manifesto pledge not to increase Income Tax, NICs or VAT as well as 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.
Trudy said: “It is right that the Chancellor has been completely transparent about our country’s finances in today’s Budget. However, as he laid out in his speech, these welcome funding announcements go even further to protect the jobs and livelihoods of my constituents, providing reassurances and certainty for families across Copeland as we begin our journey out of this pandemic.”
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 1 million jobs in the North West have been secured through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
In addition, 250,000 self-employed workers have been supported with over £1.6 billion through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme as well as 159,000 businesses with £6.4 billion in loans through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP said: “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.”