Budget: £242m to Barking and Canary Wharf for 8,000 homes
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt today bundled up a set of small spending pledges to sugarcoat reductions in previous future spending commitments to fund tax cuts.
In his Budget statement, he said: “Because we have turned the corner on inflation we will soon turn the corner on growth.”
There were no big surprises after the leaked 2p cut in National Insurance for both employed and self-employed workers, costing £10bn.
Among a clutch of small spending announcements, he said £242m of levelling up funding would be channelled into supporting the building of 8,000 homes at Barking Riverside and Canary Wharf in east London.
The Chancellor also announced that the Government had struck a £160m deal with Hitachi to buy the Wylfa nuclear site in Wales and Oldbury near Bristol in readiness to build the next major large-scale nuclear power station after Sizewell C.
The potential deal comes five years after the Japanese giant abandoned plans for a nuclear plant in Britain
He said that Great British Nuclear would today invite six companies to submit their initial tender responses by June for the next-generation small modular nuclear reactors.
A series of levelling-up measures included £100m for areas including High Peak, Dundee, Conwy, Erewash, Redditch and Coventry to support “cultural projects”.
Budget key points
OBR says inflation to fall below 2% in next few months
OBR predicts 0.8% growth this year, 1.9% next year
Confirmed employee National Insurance rate will fall from 10% to 8%. Self employed NI tax cut from 8% to 6%
Higher rate of property capital gains tax reduced from 28% to 24%.
VAT threshold raised from £85k to £90k
Fuel duty will remain at its current rate and be frozen for the next 12 months
£100m extra levelling up funding
Green Industries Growth Accelerator allocated an extra £120m to build supply chains for offshore wind and carbon capture and storage.
Public sector productivity plan for £20bn of future savings
Non-dom tax status abolished
Stamp duty relief for purchasers of more than one dwelling in a single transaction scrapped
Tax relief for holiday lets scrapped