UK Budget 2020 In Brief

11th March 2020

The chancellor announced the biggest spending budget in over 30 years.

He announced £30bn of help to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and more than £600bn for infrastructure spending over the next five years. The Chancellor also revealed he will revise the fiscal rules set out by his predecessor, launch a review into business rates and give the NHS an extra £6bn.

£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

Contributory Employment Support Allowance benefit claimants will be able to claim sick pay on day one, not after a week

£500m hardship fund to help vulnerable people

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

Personal taxation, wages and pensions

National Insurance Contributions tax threshold to rise from £8,632 to £9,500 - saving employees just over £100 a year

5% VAT on women's sanitary products, known as the tampon tax, to be scrapped

Alcohol, tobacco and fuel

Fuel duty to be frozen for the 10th consecutive year

Duties on spirits, beer, cider and wine to be frozen

Business rate discounts for pubs to rise from £1,000 to £5,000 this year

Business, digital and science

System of business rates to be reviewed later this year

Entrepreneurs' Relief will be retained, but lifetime allowance will be reduced from £10m to £1m

£5bn to be spent on getting gigabit-capable broadband into the hardest-to-reach places

Science Institute in Weybridge, Surrey to get a £1.4bn funding boost

An extra £900m for research into nuclear fusion, space and electric vehicles.

VAT on digital publications, including newspapers, books and academic journals to be scrapped from December

Environment and energy

Plastic packaging tax to come into force from April 2022

Manufacturers and importers whose products have less than 30% recyclable material will be charged £200 per tonne

Subsidies for fuel used in off-road vehicles - known as red diesel - will be scrapped "for most sectors" in two years' time

Red diesel subsidies will remain for farmers and rail operators

£120m in emergency relief for communities affected by this winter's flooding and £200m for flood resilience

Total investment in flood defences to be doubled to £5.2bn over next five years

£640m "nature for climate fund" to protect natural habitats, including 30,000 hectares of new trees

Transport, infrastructure and housing

More than £600bn is set to be spent on roads, rail, broadband and housing by the middle of 2025

£2.5bn will be made available to fix potholes and resurface roads over five years

£1.5bn in capital spending on further education colleges

£650m package to tackle homelessness, providing an extra 6,000 places for rough sleepers

Stamp duty surcharge for foreign buyers of UK properties to be levied at 2% from April 2021

£1bn fund to remove all unsafe combustible cladding from all public and private housing higher than 18 metres

The state of the economy and public finances

Economy predicted to grow by 1.1% this year, not taking into account the impact of coronavirus

This would be slowest growth since 2009

Economic growth forecast to be 1.8% in 2021-22, 1.5% in 2022-23 and 1.3% in 2023-24

Inflation forecast of 1.4% this year, increasing to 1.8% in 2021-2022

Public sector net borrowing set to rise this year to 2.1% of GDP, rising to 2.4% and 2.8% in subsequent years

Debt as a percentage of GDP forecast to be lower at end of current Parliament than now

Nations and Regions

An extra £640m for Scotland, £360m for Wales, and £210m for Northern Ireland.

Treasury's Green Book rules to be reviewed to put regional prosperity at heart of spending decisions

Treasury to open new offices in Wales and Scotland

New civil service hub in the North of England, employing 750 staff