Despite minimal fiscal and political headroom, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, delivered a budget which offered a little for everyone. Its main aim was to invest in the long-term, while supporting families and businesses under pressure now whilst paving the way for a more prosperous Britain, post Brexit.
I was particularly pleased that the Chancellor announced £44 billion in overall government support to meet an ambitious target to deliver 300,000 much needed homes a year, as we desperately need more new and affordable houses. Many young people feel they have been ignored in recent years so it is great news that Mr Hammond announced that he would abolish stamp duty for over 80% of first time buyers with immediate effect. This is really good news for the younger generation for whom buying their own home is a dream they have not been able to realise. The Chancellor has also extended discounted rail travel with a new 26–30 rail card, giving 4.5 million more young people a third off their rail fares.
There was more money for the health service. More people than ever are using our NHS, so the Chancellor announced an additional £2.8 billion of funding including £350 million to address pressures this winter and £1.6 billion next year. There will be another £10 billion in capital to upgrade buildings and facilities. As far as nurses’ pay is concerned, the Chancellor made it clear that, if future pay rises are recommended by an independent body, new money will be found.
There was good news for businesses too. The Government will help its army of 5.5 million small businesses by bringing forward the planned Business Rates switch from RPI to CPI to April 2018, worth £2.3 billion to businesses over the next five years. And it will unlock over £20 billion of investment to allow small, innovative UK firms to scale-up. The VAT threshold for small business will remain at £85,000 for two years, despite reports that it might be lowered.
I was also pleased that the Government has listened to the feedback about Universal Credit and is removing the 7 day waiting period, so that claimants only have to wait 5 weeks for their first claim. It will also increase the amount of advances available, so that – if needed – a household can receive a full month’s claim within 5 days. Any new Universal Credit claimant in receipt of Housing Benefit, will continue to receive it for two weeks.
If you are a driver you will be pleased to hear that fuel duty rise for petrol and diesel cars scheduled for April 2018 is scrapped. For those who enjoy the odd tipple, there will be no rise in the duty on beer wine, spirits and most ciders.
The world is on the brink of a technological revolution – one that will change the way we work and live and transform our living standards for generations to come. So that means the National Productivity investment fund will be increased to a total of £30 billion, to support innovation (including driverless cars) and upgrade the UK’s infrastructure to underpin the government’s modern industrial strategy. Following on from the recognition in the Industrial Strategy Green Paper that we need to reduce the weighting of the economy towards London by growing the rest of our economy much more quickly, the Chancellor confirmed that English regions, including the North, will receive a multibillion-pound investment
-
£300m to ensure HS2’s benefits spread through the North of England
-
£385m for 5G and fibre broadband networks
-
£1.7bn transforming cities fund (TCF) to improve local transport connections
Half of the money will be shared by six areas with elected mayors – Greater Manchester, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Liverpool, the Tees Valley, West of England and the West Midlands – with other cities invited to compete for the rest. This clearly illustrates the need for Yorkshire to ‘live in the land of the possible’ and move forward with devolution and elect a mayor at the earliest opportunity.
This was a Budget which included an additional £3billion to help us prepare to exit the EU smoothly and set a path for a prosperous future by supporting families, public services, businesses, and innovators as we forge a new relationship with the European Union.
There was a clear feeling that the Chancellor would like to have done much more, particularly to look at ways of boosting productivity, such as reforming business rates and looking at the VAT registration threshold, but he played safe. Looking after the money on behalf of a minority government with Brexit negotiations at such a critical stage is not easy and this budget struck just the right balance, in my view.