Yesterday afternoon, Chancellor Rishi Sunak set out what the Government is going to spend on health, education, transport and other public services in 2021. This is not a budget as there was no definitive talk about taxation ...
However, the Government has been very generous in an attempt to support the economy through two lockdowns and a tiered summer. He supported both businesses and employees, as well as offering additional funding to local authorities and the devolved governments, hard decisions had to be made.
Here are the main points from his announcement:
- Millions of public sector workers will have their pay frozen in 2021-2022 - However, millions of NHS workers, as well as public sector workers earning less than £24,000 will still get increase - The economy is expected to shrink by 11.3% by the end of this year - Unemployment will be around 7.5% by next spring, meaning over 2.6 million people out of work - The Overseas Aid budget is to be cut by about £4bn to 0.5% of GDP for the next couple of years - A £4bn 'levelling up' fund will be used for upgrading local infrastructure across the UK
The Chancellor has said that in addition to the £280 billion already spent, the Government has committed to a further £55 billion in 2021 to support the recovery. This includes programmes and incentives to individuals to help them find work. He also predicted that because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the long-term outlook for the economy is a 3% shrinkage by 2025.
I'll blog more about the specifics as further information is released.
If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.