Budget 2020

Today’s Budget delivers on our promises to the British people and gets things done. It is a Budget delivered in challenging times, that delivers on the priorities people asked us to focus on, and builds on the great progress made during the last decade.

I have included below a link to the full transcript of the Chancellor’s Budget statement so you can see for yourself just how ambitious this Government’s financial programme really is.

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/budget-2020

First of all, on the continuing coverage of COVID-19. The Budget takes place against the backdrop of this global outbreak and this will inevitably have short term impacts on the wider UK economy. Despite this short-term disruption, the fundamentals of the UK economy are strong, and the government is well prepared to protect people’s health and support their economic security throughout this period of temporary economic disturbance.

Measures have been set out in the Budget to support both individuals and businesses through the worst period of the outbreak. These measures include:

• For individuals it includes extending Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for those advised to self-isolate, and those caring for others who self-isolate, and support through the welfare system for those who cannot claim SSP.
• For businesses this will mean expanded Business Rates reliefs, a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme to support up to a further £1 billion lending to SMEs, a £2.2 billion grant scheme for small businesses, and a dedicated helpline for those who need a deferral period on their tax liabilities.
• Creation of a £500million ‘Hardship fund’ for local authorities.
• £5 billion COVID-19 response fund to ensure the NHS and other public services receive the funding they need to respond to the outbreak as the situation develops and recover and return to normal afterwards.

I will continue to keep an eye on the developments relating to COVID-19 and I will be regularly updating my website with the latest information.

PUBLIC SERVICES

Turning to other measures announced in the Budget; the Chancellor announced more funding for our excellent public services. NHS England will receive a cash increase of £34 billion a year by 2024. In addition, the Budget commits over £6 billion of new funding over this Parliament to create 50 million more GP surgery appointments per year and recruit 50,000 more nurses.

This Budget also builds upon the existing commitment to a £7.1 billion cash increase in funding for schools by 2022-23 to ensure our children have the best possible start in life.

The Budget builds on this by providing £29 million per year by 2023-24 to support primary school PE teaching and help schools make the best use of their sports facilities. A further £90 million per year will be available to introduce an Arts Premium from September 2021 to help schools provide high-quality arts programmes and extracurricular activities for pupils.

COST OF LIVING

This Budget truly delivers for hardworking families up and down Norwich and the policies announced this week will result in families being able to keep more of what they earn. We will see:

• An increase in the National Insurance threshold to £9,500 this April, benefiting 31 million people with a typical employee saving over £100 in 2020 –the first step to reaching our ambition to increase the threshold to £12,500.
• Minimum wage increases for the lowest paid. The National Living Wage will increase by 6.2 per cent to £8.72 from April. The Budget commits to a new ambitious target for the National Living Wage to end low pay and extend this to workers aged 21 and over by 2024.
• Fuel duty frozen for a tenth year in a row.
• Duty on beer, spirits, wine and cider frozen too.

BUSINESS

Businesses are at the heart of our dynamic economy and provide jobs.  Our sensible level of business taxation also enables the Government to fund our world class public services. I am incredibly pleased to see measures in the Budget which will be a direct help for our local businesses.

The Chancellor unveiled plans to:

• Abolish business rates on small premises on our high streets.
• Cut taxes to allow them to invest and focus on growing their business creating jobs and driving innovation.
• Increase the Employment Allowance so businesses can grow and create more well-paid jobs. We will help businesses to take on extra staff by increasing the Employment Allowance to £4,000 (increasing it by a third)   benefitting over 500,000 businesses and taking 65,000 businesses which will be taken out of NICs altogether.
• Reform Entrepreneurs’ Relief so that it genuinely works in the interests of small business owners.
• Keep corporation tax at 19%, the lowest rate in the G20.

I will be providing further, specific blog updates on the measures announced into my own campaign priorities for Norwich North over the coming days.

This Budget provides lots of good news for people here in Norwich. As the MP for Norwich North I will be continuing my work in Parliament to help deliver for local jobs and businesses.

I will also be continuing my work, with my fellow Norfolk Conservative MPs, in the spending review which comes later in the year and is more about the long-term - to speak for Norwich and ensure our county and city get our fair share of investment.