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MY BUDGET FOR GROWTH Last week I shared with you and theFarnham and Haslemere Heralds ([link removed]) exactly what goes on when preparing for a budget, so this week, I thought I would share the final product of all that work:my budget for growth ([link removed]) . That is really the key for our country: how we return to healthy growth in a way that can pay for the NHS and schools as well as keeping taxes low. Locally it matters: lots of people are feeling the pinch; we want investment in the Royal Surrey and Frimley; and we also need growth throughout the country to reduce development pressures in Surrey.

There has been progress since the Autumn Statement. ([link removed]) Ten-year gilt rates have fallen (and are now below the US), debt servicing costs are down, mortgage rates are lower and inflation has peaked. There is more work to bring down inflation but I focused on the two biggest issues businesses (locally and nationally) tell me are holding them both: taxes and labour shortages.

It won’t surprise those who read my updates regularly that the four pillars of my plan to do so (and indeed our wider growth strategy) start with the letter ‘E’: Education, Employment, Enterprise and Everywhere. There are actually more than 160 measures in the budget but if you want to see a one minute summary of the top 11 measures take a lookhere ([link removed]) .

EDUCATION ([link removed]) Pre-school childcare is the least well performing part of our education system (as broadly defined) and something many local parents worry about, not least in Godalming where many have been worried when the planned closure of the Bright Horizons nursery on the High Street was announced. So the biggest reform I announced was to expand the 30 hours free childcare offer for 3 and 4 year olds (introduced by the Conservatives a decade ago) to all children over 9 months. To make sure that supply can keep up with demand I am also increasing the funding paid to nurseries for the current free hours offer by 30% for disadvantaged two year olds. We will also pilot incentive payments of £600 for childminders who sign up for the profession, rising to £1,200 for those who join through an agency and ask all schools to move towards a ‘wraparound’ offer allowing kids to be dropped off at 8 and picked up at 6. Overall it is a near 60% cut
in the cost of childcare for 1 and 2 year olds worth £6,500 per child so I am putting my money where my mouth is on this one.

EMPLOYMENT ([link removed]) Since 2010 unemployment has halved and the number of households where no one is working has gone down by one million (not least because for the first time you can earn £1000 a month without paying any tax or national insurance). But our businesses still have over a million vacancies. If we had the same employment levels as Holland there would be 2.7 million more people working - filling them nearly three times over. So the budget focused on removing the barriers that stop people working who want to.

That is not just parents who can’t work because childcare is too expensive. We unveiled a new voluntary scheme for 50,000 disabled people every year where we will spend up to £4,000 per person to help them find appropriate jobs and put in place the support they need. There a thousands of jobs disabled people can do with the advent of zoom and working from home and we need to rethink our attitudes to what is possible. Alongside this, I committed to a £400m plan to increase the availability of mental health and musculoskeletal resources and expand the Individual Placement and Support scheme. We will also give more work coaching to non-disabled jobseekers and ask more of them: it is not acceptable to turn down a good job offer when there is one on the table.

More than 40% of my constituents are - like me - over 50. I prefer the phrase ‘experienced’ to ‘older’ - and I want to make sure no one is forced into early retirement by pension rules. My top priority is doctors, whom we need in the NHS to tackle the backlog, so I ended the lifetime allowance pension cap. My former foes the BMA were delighted and said doctors had already contacted them saying they would return to work. I also want to help older people retrain for new careers so we will introduce a new kind of apprenticeship targeted at the over 50s who want to return to work called ‘Returnerships.’ I want to end the sense of a retirement ‘cliff edge’ and make it as easy as possible for those who want to continue working whether part time, from home, the same career or a new one. Labour have rather foolishly said they oppose this even though it is John Curtice writes today ([link removed]) it is backed
by 60% of people.

ENTERPRISE ([link removed]) – You may have heard that I used to be an entrepreneur and being Chancellor allows me to help all those fellow business innovators who will fuel Britain as we grow to become the most dynamic enterprise economy in Europe. Since 2010 we have one million more businesses in the UK, a bigger increase than in Germany, France or Italy. We have brilliant local businesses whether big like Hall Hunter ([link removed]) who provide soft fruit to many supermarkets or small like the wonderful Nest Cafe in Bramley ([link removed]) . What they want is help when they spend money on new equipment and plant, so I have increased theAnnual Investment Allowance ([link removed]) to £1 million for smaller businesses and for larger ones said that 100% of investment will be deductible from taxable profits for
the next three years.

In the last year the UK became the world’s third biggest technology economy after the US and China and I have long thought we should aim to be the world’s next Silicon Valley. So I committed around £900 million of funding for a British AI supercomputer and overhauled the way we approved medicines to make it much easier for the newest medicines to become available on the NHS. We have also become Europe’s largest film and TV industry so to build on this I increased tax relief for television production, theatre, museums and orchestras.

All businesses need cheap, clean energy. To support this,my budget ([link removed]) extended theClimate Change Agreements ([link removed]) for two years to allow eligible businesses £600 million of tax relief on energy efficiency measures, announced up to £20 billion of support for the early development of Carbon Capture Usage and Storage and also announced the launch ofGreat British Nuclear ([link removed]) and the first competition forSmall Modular Reactors ([link removed](%20SMRs%20),site%20manufacturing%20for%20flexible%20deployment.) . It will be completed by the end of this year, and if demonstrated to be viable the government will co-fund this exciting new technology.

EVERYWHERE ([link removed]) We have already allocated nearly £4 billion to more than 200 projects across the country through the first two rounds of theLevelling Up Fund ([link removed]) , with a third round on the way. I made another £400 million available for new Levelling Up Partnerships as well as announcing that the government will deliver twelve new Investment Zones - mini Canary Wharfs - with each having access to £80 million of support for a range of interventions including skills, infrastructure, tax reliefs and business rates retention. And there was an extra £200m for thePotholes Fund ([link removed]) following extensive lobbying from our very own Cllr Peter Martin, the motorists friend from
Godalming!

COST OF LIVING SUPPORT That was the growth plan - but I did not forget that many families are still feeling the pinch. So I extended the £2,500 Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) for three months which will save a typical family £160 and postponed the 11p fuel duty rise, a £100 saving for drivers. For my two local pubs the Merry Harrier and the White Horse I froze the draught duty so it is now 11p less than a pint at a supermarket.

MORE MONEY FOR DEFENCE We are a global power with global responsibilities. So the son of a naval officer was proud to confirm a total of £11 billion for our defence budget over the next five years which will be nearly 2.25% of GDP by 2025. There was also more support for veterans.

LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST TheOffice for Budget Responsibility ([link removed]) has forecast that partly because of the measures I introduced, the United Kingdom will not enter a recession this year and that we will meet the Prime Minister’s three economic priorities: to halve inflation, to grow the economy and to make sure that our national debt is falling. So some reasons to be cheerful, but lots of challenges ahead too.

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Promoted by Sean Donovan-Smith on behalf of Jeremy Hunt MP and South West Surrey Conservatives, all at 2 Royal Parade, Tilford Road, Hindhead, Surrey GU26 6TD.

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