Budget: At a glance

Coronavirus

£5bn emergency response fund to support the NHS and other public services

Statutory sick pay will be paid to all those who choose to self-isolate, even if they don’t have symptoms

14 days of sick pay for employees at small businesses hit by coronavirus will be refunded

Self-employed people will find it “quicker and easier” to access benefits

£500m hardship fund to help vulnerable people

Businesses will be able to defer tax payments over an agreed period of time, with a dedicated helpline staffed by 2,000 workers

Firms with less than 250 staff will be refunded for sick pay payments for two weeks

Small firms will be able to access business interruption loans of up to £1.2m

Business rates will be abolished for firms in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors with a rateable value below £51,000

The total spent on fiscal stimulus measures to fight the impact of the virus will be £30bn

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Economic forecasts

OBR, has, without accounting for the impact of coronavirus, forecast UK growth of 1.1% in 2020, 1.8% in 2021 then 1.5%, 1.3%, and 1.4% in the following years

OBR sees borrowing rising from 2.1% of GDP in 2019/20 to 2.4% in 2020/21 and 2.8% in 2021/22.

OBR forecasts inflation of 1.4% this year, increasing to 1.8% next year

Headline debt expected to be lower at the end of this Parliament, falling from 79.5% this year to 75.2% in 2024/25.

Entrepreneur’s Relief

Entrepreneurs’ Relief will not be abolished – Sunak says he will do what the Federation of Small Businesses called “a sensible reform” and reduce it from £10m to £1m.

Tax

Corporation tax will remain at 19%

National Insurance threshold to rise from £8,632 to £9,500 saving a typical employee £104 annually

Fuel, beer, wine and spirit duties all frozen

Infrastructure

Chancellor to make £120m available to repair defences damaged in the recent floods

For areas that have been repeatedly flooded, £200m of funding set aside for local communities to build flood resilience

Chancellor to double investment in flood defences over the next six years to £5.2bn

£27bn to be invested in Britain’s road’s with 50 million potholes to be repaired.

Housing

Government will extend the affordable homes programme with a new multi-year settlement of £12bn