WARRINGTON’S two MPs have given their polar views on the budget, with Warrington South’s Andy Carter welcoming a commitment to protecting jobs and livelihoods, while Warrington North’s Charlotte Nichols described it as a “political stunt” to increase the Chancellor’s standings amongst Tory MPs and party members in the shires.
Mr Carter (Con) said the Budget delivers on commitment to provide security and stability to the British people through the pandemic – providing over £407 billion of support for families, jobs and businesses over this year and next.
Key measures include extending furlough to the end of September, two further grants for the self-employed, a six-month extension to the Universal Credit uplift, and new grants and loans for businesses.
He also welcomed announcements to build the economy include a freeport in the North West, and a new Help to Grow scheme to boost the productivity of small businesses – delivering on the Conservatives’ agenda to level up across the country and build back better from the pandemic.
But Ms Nichols described it as a “Budget of style but no substance,” with nothing on giving keyworkers the pay rise they deserve, nothing on a plan for social care, nothing on properly tackling the jobs crisis, nothing on tackling child poverty and nothing on an uplift to legacy benefits for people on ESA.
Welcoming the budget Mr Carter said it would provide billions of pounds to support businesses and families through the pandemic, delivering on the Conservatives’ promises it has made to the British people and invests in the UK’s future economy.
He said the Government had set out an ambitious plan that focuses on supporting people and businesses through this moment of crisis – well beyond the end of the roadmap – to ensure they have the security and stability they need.
As part of the Government’s commitments to fund the nation’s priorities, the Budget confirmed:
1.An extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of September, ensuring it continues to support employers as they begin to reopen. Two further grants will also be available to self-employed people – and the newly self-employed will also be eligible for both grants.
2.A continuation of the temporary Universal Credit uplift for a further six months. The Budget also confirms new support for providing young people with new skills: including doubling the incentive payment to SMEs to take on apprentices of any age to £3,000, and £126 million to triple the number of traineeships next year.
3.New Recovery Loans and a new Restart grant of up to £18,000 to help businesses as they reopen. Support for the sports, arts and culture sectors will also be increased by a further £700 million as they begin to reopen.
4.Extending the business rates holiday, VAT cut and stamp duty holiday. There will also be a new mortgage guarantee scheme from April which backs 95 per cent mortgages – helping those with smaller deposits.
5.Opening up the new Levelling Up Fund for its first round of bids, worth £4.8 billion across the United Kingdom. The Budget also announces 45 new Town Deals to help spread opportunity across the country.
6.Announcing the locations of eight freeports in England, which will encourage free trade and bring investment to all regions of the country through lower taxes and cheaper customs.
7.Launching the first-ever UK Infrastructure Bank – located in Leeds – to invest in public and private projects to drive green growth and create green jobs.
8.A new Help to Grow scheme to boost productivity of small businesses, to ensure they are embracing the latest technology and management training.
9.Being honest with the British people about the need to fix the public finances. We are standing by our manifesto pledge not to increase Income Tax, NICs or VAT and we are freezing alcohol duty, and fuel duty for the 11th year in a row. However to fix the public finances, corporation tax on large company profits will increase to 25 per cent in 2023. This will be tapered and 70 per cent of businesses will be completely unaffected.
10.The Budget will strengthen all four parts of the United Kingdom, with bespoke schemes for each nation confirmed additional funding for Scotland (£1.2 billion), Wales (£740 million), and Northern Ireland (£410 million).
Commenting, Mr Carter said: “Today’s Budget provides businesses and families in Warrington South with the support and reassurance they need to get through the pandemic.
“With £407 billion of support for families, jobs and businesses, it is right that the Chancellor is honest with the British people about our public finances.
“I’m very pleased to see new measures in place to help first time buyers, with the extension of zero stamp duty until the end of June and a new 95% mortgages will also be available with many high streets banks to help young people in Warrington to get on the property ladder, ensuring we don’t have a generation of renters.
“At the same time, I was elected on a commitment to level up communities like ours, and I am pleased that this Conservative Government is now making good on that promise – by building our future economy and investing in every corner of the United Kingdom with Warrington benefiting from the High Potential Opportunities Programme, promoting support in high tech funding to attract inward investment into the North West. Most importantly, small businesses, the backbone of our local economy are also supported with a number of additional extensions to the business grant and the “help to grown scheme” to aid digital investment.
“Finally I’m very pleased to see £5.2 billion Flood and Coastal Defence programme kickstarts in April. Including schemes in Warrington, which will better protect homes from flooding.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP said: “Throughout this pandemic, my top priority has been to protect jobs, businesses and livelihoods. Today’s Budget reaffirms this commitment, with £407 billion to support the British people this year and next as one of the largest, most comprehensive and sustained responses this country has ever seen.
“It is thanks to successive Conservative governments that we have been able to respond to this crisis as boldly as we have. But we need to be honest about the challenges facing our public finances, and how we will begin to fix them.
“As we look ahead, this Budget lays the foundations of our future economy – driving up productivity, creating green jobs, supporting small businesses, and levelling up across the entire United Kingdom”.
Charlotte Nichols MP
But Warrington North’s Labour MP Charlotte Nichols responded: “Earlier this week I said that I would judge this Budget on whether it puts people before politics. On that criteria it has monumentally failed.
“We have a Chancellor who is more concerned with putting his signature on shiny new graphics than protecting the incomes of families in Warrington.
“This Budget is nothing more than a political stunt to increase the Chancellor’s standings amongst Tory MPs and party members in the shires. He has announced that he is increasing taxes on businesses so that he can get credit for cutting them before the next General Election. That is how you charm colleagues in a Tory leadership contest, not how you govern the country.
“Ultimately this Budget does not come anywhere near close to addressing the inequalities in our country. Ten years of cuts to our public services have weakened the foundations of our economy, all the Chancellor could muster was some money that was announced by George Osborne eight years ago, move parts of the Treasury to Darlington and introduce free ports.
“This was a Budget of style but no substance. There was nothing on giving our keyworkers the pay rise they deserve, nothing on a plan for social care, nothing on properly tackling the jobs crisis, nothing on tackling child poverty and nothing on an uplift to legacy benefits for people on ESA.
“He has also promised that the £20 uplift to Universal Credit will be continued for six months but not announced that this will be permanent, thereby moving the cliff edge six months and giving more uncertainty to families on UC in Warrington. Mentioning this is not nitpicking or politics for politics sake, peoples livelihoods are at risk and the Chancellor simply hasn’t got to grips with it.
“There is something particularly pernicious about the real terms cut to Statutory Sick Pay during this horrendous pandemic. A 0.5% increase will be far outstripped by the inflationary increases of 1.5% to CPI and 2.5% to RPI. It is not only a cowardly abdication of duty to those unable to afford to self-isolate, it is also a danger to the public health of our whole community.
“The Tories have been trying to brand themselves as a party of economic competence when in reality they only seek to line the pockets of their friends and donors at the top. Labour offers something different, a values-based economic plan that would put communities, families and local businesses at its heart.”
