I strongly welcome the news the UK has, against the backdrop of unprecedented circumstances, avoided recession with growth forecast to return. Today’s Budget for Growth focusses on the four pillars of Enterprise, Employment, Education and Everywhere. This comes on top of the news that the OBR expects inflation to more than halve and reduce to 2.9% by the end of the year.
For people in Thirsk and Malton, there’s a great deal to be positive about. Childcare costs are an issue I know many families locally raise as a key concern. The Chancellor announced today he will be extending 30 hours of childcare a week to working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years, paying Universal Credit childcare costs up front rather than in arrears, as well as introducing reforms to the childcare sector including changes to 2-year-old staff.
Moreover, I’ve received a large volume of correspondence on support for energy costs with many requests for the support to continue for another set period. I therefore welcome the news of the Energy Price Guarantee extension which will reassure those constituents who’ve reached out. In addition, as a long-time supporter of the pubs and hostelries across our great region, I’m delighted the tax on draught beer in pubs will remain frozen from 1 August this year, as part of a new Brexit pubs guarantee.
I was very pleased to hear the Chancellor highlight the value of apprenticeships in this Budget, with his announcement that a new ‘Returnerships’ apprenticeship targeted at the over 50s will refine existing skills programmes to make them more accessible to older workers, giving them the skills and support they need to find a recognisable path back into work. As constituents will know, I’m a big supporter of apprenticeships, having arranged Friday’s Thirsk and Malton Engineering Apprenticeships Fair - I hope people of all ages will be able to attend.
A summary of key announcements include:
- Extending 30 hours of childcare a week to working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years
- Paying Universal Credit childcare costs up front rather than in arrears
- Introducing reforms to the childcare sector including changes to 2-year-old staff: child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5
- Introducing a £25 billion three-year tax cut for business investment
- Increasing the annual pension allowance to £60,000 and abolishing the Lifetime Allowance
- Establishing a new Universal Support programme for disabled people and the long-term sick
- Abolishing the Work Capability Assessment and increasing the Administrative Earning Threshold to 18 hours
- Extending the Energy Price Guarantee at £2,500 for three months
- Freezing fuel duty for a thirteenth year, saving the average driver around £200
- Delivering a Brexit Pub Guarantee so draught duty will always be less than duty in supermarkets
Delivering for the people of North Yorkshire, this Budget:
- Secures a new devolution deal with local authorities across the Yorkshire and the Humber
- Forms Levelling Up Partnerships across the Yorkshire and the Humber
- Delivers three Levelling Up Regeneration Projects backed by £45.6 million
- Combined Authority, delivering high-value capital projects to be delivered this year
- Invests an additional £462,000 across three projects through the Community Ownership Fund
- Benefits 3,770 public houses and bars across the Yorkshire and the Humber through Draught Relief, helping the hospitality with higher costs.
- Awards £20.8 million to fix potholes across Yorkshire and the Humber, funding enough to fix the equivalent of 415,000 potholes
You can read the Budget in full here.
