Autumn budget 2018 - part 2

More measures in the Chancellor's budget statement yesterday

Supporting our public services

·         Funding the Prime Minister’s NHS commitment.  We have fully-funded the cash settlement that was set out in June – which equates to £20.5 billion more in real terms by 2023-24, and an average real growth rate in the NHS’s budget of 3.4 per cent a year.
 
·         £2 billion more per year for mental health. The long-term plan for the NHS will commit further funding to help achieve parity of esteem between mental and physical health services. It means anyone experiencing a crisis can call NHS 111 24/7, more mental health ambulances, increased community support and comprehensive support at every major A&E by 2024. 
 
·         £400 million more for schools this year. We are allocating £10,000 to the average primary and £50,000 to the average secondary to help schools buy the equipment they need.  

·         £1 billion for defence across this year and next. This will ensure our world-class Armed Forces can face the new threats, and build on the UK’s record of spending more on defence than any NATO member except the US.
 
·         £160 million counter-terror police funding next year – the biggest one-off funding boost since 2015. This means we can recruit more of the vital counter-terror officers who protect Britain against the evil threats we face.

Labour can’t deliver the strong economy that pays for our public services. They have made 39 unfunded spending commitments since the election – meaning broken promises, or more borrowing and extra taxes.


Investing to improve productivity
 
·         Increasing the National Productivity Investment Fund to £37 billion and extending it to 2024. This will take public investment to the highest consistently sustained level in 40 years, and to £22 billion more a year in real terms than under Labour.
 
·         £28.8 billion for England’s largest roads – the biggest-ever single cash investment. We will allocate £28.8 billion to the National Roads Fund from 2020-25. This will be the first time ever that all ‘road tax’ will be spent on roads, increasing Highways England’s budget by 40 per cent.
 
·         £200 million for full fibre broadband rollout. This will be used to pilot new approaches to fibre rollout in rural areas, starting in primary schools.
 
·         Abolishing the use of PFI and PF2 for future projects to deliver value for the taxpayer. Labour agreed nearly 90 per cent of all PFI contracts, leaving a bill for the country of more than £200 billion. We will honour existing contracts, but the days of the public sector being a pushover must end, putting another legacy of Labour behind us.
 
Backing business
 
·         We will back firms to invest by:
Extending the Annual Investment Allowance to £1 million to help businesses invest to grow.
Introducing a permanent Structures and Buildings Allowance to support investment in buildings.
 
·         We will support start-ups to grow by:
 Extending the Start Up Loans programme to 2021, backing up to (no space) 10,000 entrepreneurs.
 Extending New Enterprise Allowance to help benefits claimants get their idea off the ground. 
 
·         We will help businesses with their costs by:
 Delivering the lowest Corporation Tax rate in the G20.
 Freezing HGV Vehicle Excise Duty and short haul Air Passenger Duty.
 Keeping three million small businesses out of VAT altogether by maintain one of the highest VAT thresholds in the world.
 Making it cheaper to take on apprentices by halving the co-investment rate for non-levy payers.
 
·         And we will invest in the technologies of the future with:
 £121 million to support cutting edge digital manufacturing.
 £78 million to fund electric motor innovations.
 £315 million in quantum technologies.
 £50 million for new Turing Fellowships to attract and retain the world’s experts in AI.



Supporting local communities

Councils and high streets
 
·         £650 million more for social care next year. Councils will receive additional grant funding of £650 million for social care, building on the £240 million for winter pressures this year announced at Conservative Party Conference.
 
·         £84 million for children’s social care. We will expand successful children’s social care programmes from Leeds, North Yorkshire and Hertfordshire to up to 20 other councils with high or rising need. 
 
·         £420 million for potholes. We will make £420 million available immediately via an uplift in the Highways Maintenance block grant to help tackle potholes, bridge repairs and other minor works. £150 million will also be made available to improve local traffic hotspots such as roundabouts.
 
·         £900 million to cut business rates by one third for two years. This is for retailers with rateable value of under £51,000, saving up to 90 per cent of all shops up to £8,000 each year, and building on previous reductions worth more than £12.5 billion. We will introduce 100 per cent relief for public toilets, benefiting many town and parish councils.
 
·         £675 million for a Future High Streets Fund and a new High Streets Taskforce. This will support councils to implement plans for the transformation of their high streets. We will also relax town planning rules to support new mixed-use businesses on the high street and the conversion of under-used retail units into offices and homes.
 
Housing

·         Abolishing stamp duty retrospectively for first-time buyers of all shared ownership properties up to £300,000, helping more people to get a foot on the housing ladder.
 
·         Putting an additional £500 million into the Housing Infrastructure Fund, unlocking thousands of new homes so more people have a decent place to call home.
 
·         Committing over £7.2 billion to a new Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme to support 110,000 new homebuyers in England. The scheme will run for two years, targeted at first-time buyers with new regional property price caps.
 
·         Formally abolishing the Housing Revenue Account cap. We will abolish the cap that controls local authority borrowing for house building from 29 October in England. This will enable councils to increase building to around 10,000 homes per year.
 
Environment

·         Introducing a new tax on plastic packaging which does not contain 30 per cent recycled plastic. We will consult on the design of this new tax, which will encourage the manufacture of sustainable packaging.
 
·         £60 million to plant millions more trees. £10 million match-funding will be provided for new street and urban trees, and up to £50 million to purchase carbon credits from landowners who plant qualifying woodland. The latter would provide for an estimated 10 million new trees over the next 30 years.
 
·         We will also continue to protect our environment by:
           Investing up to £315 million in an Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.
           Investing £13 million to extend the flood warning service.
           Providing £10 million to clear up abandoned waste sites.
           Providing £20 million to develop easier-to-recycle materials

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