“A Budget for Growth”
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, delivered his first Spring Budget on 15 March declaring it was “A Budget for Growth.” The fiscal update included a range of new measures, some of which had been widely trailed prior to Budget day, in order to achieve growth “by removing obstacles that stop businesses investing; by tackling labour shortages that stop them recruiting; by breaking down barriers that stop people working; and by harnessing British ingenuity to make us a science and technology superpower.”
OBR forecasts
The Chancellor began his statement by unveiling the latest economic projections produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which he said showed the UK would meet the Prime Minister’s priorities to “halve inflation, reduce debt and get the economy growing.” In relation to the first priority, Mr Hunt said the latest OBR figures suggest inflation will fall from an average rate of 10.7% in the final quarter of last year to 2.9% by the end of 2023. This sharp decline is partly due to some of the Chancellor’s Budget measures, including the three-month extension to the household Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), which the government had confirmed earlier in the day.
Mr Hunt also said the OBR forecast suggests the UK economy will now avoid a technical recession this year (defined as two consecutive quarters of economic decline) and then expand in each of the remaining years of the five-year forecast period. According to the updated figures, the economy is expected to shrink by 0.2% this year, a significant upgrade from last autumn’s forecast of a 1.4% contraction, with growth then predicted to hit 1.8% in 2024 and 2.5% in 2025, before easing back towards its medium-term potential growth rate of 1.75% by 2028.
The Chancellor’s growth strategy focuses on the four pillars ‘Everywhere, Enterprise, Employment and Education,’ as previously outlined in his Bloomberg speech in January.
Everywhere
Mr Hunt spoke about the government’s plans for ‘Levelling Up,’ including the launch of 12 new Investment Zones. Across these “12 potential Canary Wharfs,” £80m of support per zone will be available for skills, infrastructure and tax reliefs. Mr Hunt also mentioned specific projects selected for local investment, including:
- £200m for local regeneration projects and £400m for new Levelling Up Partnerships across England
- £8.8bn over the next five-year funding period for the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements
- Up to £8.6m for the Edinburgh Festivals, as well as £1.5m for the repair of Cloddach Bridge, near Elgin, and £20m for the restoration of the Holyhead Breakwater in Anglesey
- Up to £3m to extend the Tackling Paramilitarism Programme in Northern Ireland
Enterprise
To provide the right conditions for businesses to succeed:
- A ‘full expensing’ policy will apply from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2026 to allow investment in IT, plant or machinery to be deducted in full and immediately from taxable profits
- An increased rate of relief for loss-making Research and Development (R&D)-intensive small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) – eligible companies will receive a £27 credit from HMRC for every £100 of R&D investment
- An extension of higher reliefs for theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries for two further years
- The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will receive £10m extra funding over two years
- All of the recommendations from Sir Patrick Vallance’s review of pro-innovation regulation of digital technologies are accepted
- £900m of funding for AI Research Resource and an exascale computer as well as a commitment to £2.5bn ten-year quantum research and innovation programme through the government’s new Quantum Strategy
- Innovation Accelerators programme – £100m funding for 26 transformative R&D projects
- AI Challenge Prize – £1 million prize every year for the next ten years to researchers that drive progress in critical areas of AI
Employment
The Chancellor turned next to Employment, with a suite of new measures to “remove the barriers that stop people who want to from working.” To achieve this, he announced:
Mature workers
- The expansion of the DWP’s ‘midlife’ MOT scheme, aiming to reach up to 40,000 individuals per year (up from the current 8,000)
- New ‘Returnerships’ scheme to make existing skills programmes more accessible to older workers and help them upskill and retrain
- A pension tax relief overhaul; see details in Personal Taxation and Pensions section
People with long-term illnesses and disabilities
- A white paper on disability benefits reform
- The abolition of the Work Capability Assessment for disability benefits claimants
- A new voluntary employment scheme for people with disabilities
- £406m to increase support for working adults with mental health, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular problems
Welfare recipients
- An increase to the Administrative Earnings Threshold
- A stronger sanctions regime for Universal Credit claimants
Care leavers
- A 50% increase in funding for the Staying Close programme
- An increase in the Qualifying Care Relief threshold to £18,140 per year plus £375 to £450 per person cared for per week for 2023/24 and these thresholds will then be index-linked, representing a tax cut worth approximately £450 per year on average
Education
Mr Hunt then turned to Education, stating that he wants to reform the childcare system, currently “one of the most expensive systems in the world.”
His new proposal will offer 30 free hours of childcare each week to pre-school-age children aged nine months or above in English households where both parents work. It will be phased in on the following timeline:
- April 2024 – eligible two-year-olds will receive 15 hours of free childcare per week
- September 2024 – qualifying children aged nine months to two years will receive 15 hours
- September 2025 – eligible children aged nine months to three years will receive 30 hours
Also, schools and local authorities will be funded to increase availability of wraparound care, to enable parents of school-age children to drop them off between 8am and 6pm.
To tackle the problem of unaffordable upfront costs, Mr Hunt also announced support for the 700,000 families on Universal Credit. Another major change involves each staff member in England being able to look after five two-year-olds instead of four, as is already the case in Scotland.
Closing comments
Jeremy Hunt signed off his announcement saying, “Today we build for the future with inflation down, debt falling and growth up. The declinists are wrong and the optimists are right. We stick to the plan because the plan is working.”
All details are believed to be correct at the time of writing (15 March 2023)
It is important to take professional advice before making any decision relating to your personal finances. Information within this document is based on our current understanding of taxation and can be subject to change in future. It does not provide individual tailored investment advice and is for guidance only. Some rules may vary in different parts of the UK; please ask for details. We cannot assume legal liability for any errors or omissions it might contain. Levels and bases of, and reliefs from, taxation are those currently applying or proposed and are subject to change; their value depends on individual circumstances.