Sunak outlines the details of the budget
- Support for self-employed will continue until September
- Universal Credit uplift of £20/week will continue for another 6 months
- To provide new 'restart grant' for businesses in April
- Retailers will receive up to £6,000 per premise
- Hospitality venues will receive up to £18,000 pre premise
- Total direct cash support for businesses will rise to £25 billion (additional £5 billion)
- Introduces a new 'recovery loan scheme'
- Businesses of any size can apply for loan of £25,000 to £10,000,000
- Will extend UK business rates holiday until June (£6 billion "tax cut")
- Reduced VAT rate for hospitality to be extended until end of September
- Stamp duty holiday for homebuyers will continue until 30 June
- Introduces new mortgage guarantee policy for homebuyers
- New policy will allow for just 5% deposit (95% mortgage) for homebuyers
- An additional £65 billion provided for COVID-support measures
- UK corporate tax rate will increase to 25% from 19% in 2023
This largely matches with the expectations as outlined earlier here. There are no major surprises to the announcement but in any case, this is a boost to the UK economy overall - especially the VAT tax cut and the stamp duty holiday for the housing market.
The extension of the furlough scheme and business grants will also help with getting the economy back up and running again in the summer but we'll see how all of this translates to the data in the coming months.
The pound is keeping steadier with cable at 1.3963 currently, little changed from the announcement. EUR/GBP is keeping lower at 0.8639 at the moment.
