Julia Lopez MP has welcomed the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget and Spending Review, which provides the foundations for a stronger economy in London and across every part of the United Kingdom as the country continues its recovery from the pandemic.
Measures that will benefit London include a £1 billion annual investment in London’s transport system through Business Rates Retention, a share of £24 billion for strategic road upgrades, including the Lower Thames Crossing – which will increase capacity across the Thames east of London by over 90 per cent – building on the over £4 billion since the start of the pandemic to support London’s transport network, ensuring services continue to run
£65 million will also be delivered for six projects through the first tranche of the Conservative Government’s £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund – including £7.2 million to connect Northolt Station to White Hart Roundabout, £9.3 million to transform Whitechapel Road, and £20 million to connect 75,000 of Newham’s residents to vital infrastructure by a 15-minute walk or cycle.
The Budget also confirmed that five new Community Diagnostic Centres will be built across London in 2021-22, expanding diagnostic capacity across the country whilst targeting investment at areas of deprivation.
London will also benefit from a share of the £2.6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund – focused on helping people into jobs and supporting businesses across the UK – £560 million funding for the Youth Investment Fund and National Citizen Service, and £5 billion for Project Gigabit, rolling out gigabit capable broadband for homes and businesses across the UK.
The Budget prioritises helping working families and vulnerable households with the cost of living, including through a significant tax cut for low-income families by reducing the Universal Credit taper rate from 63 per cent to 55 per cent, a 6.6 per cent increase in the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour – giving a £1,000 pay rise to 2 million of the lowest paid – lifting pay restraints for public sector workers, a freeze in fuel duty for the twelfth consecutive year, and a freeze in alcohol duty – alongside radical reform to make the system simpler, fairer and healthier.
Businesses will also benefit from new measures, including a 50 per cent cut in business rates next year for 90 per cent of retail, hospitality and leisure – alongside a freeze of all rates – the creation of new business rates relief to encourage green technologies and improvements to properties, and a doubling of creative industries tax reliefs for the UK’s world-leading theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries.
Other measures to drive economic growth include record investment in our roads, railways and broadband; supporting innovation through a record £20 billion spending on R&D; and a huge uplift in skills training through T-levels, Institutes of Technology, and apprenticeships.
As part of the three year Spending Review delivered alongside the Budget, total government departmental spending will increase by £150 billion by 2024–a 3.8 per cent annual real terms increase – the largest real terms increase this century, and record levels of capital investment not seen in 50 years.
This funding increase will help to deliver on the Conservative Government’s key manifesto promises, including building 40 new hospitals, recruiting 20,000 police officers, and raising per pupil spending in schools to record levels.
Underpinning these measures, the Budget strengthens the country’s public finances and will get debt falling again, following the £400 billion package of support put in place during the pandemic. The new fiscal rules set out today by the Chancellor will require the government to only borrow to invest and get debt falling by 2024, in line with the Conservative Government’s 2019 manifesto commitment.