Budget 2021: Business rates holiday extended to end of June March 3, 2021 The business rates holiday for retail and hospitality firms will continue until the end of June, the chancellor announced today. Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons that the 100 per cent business rates holiday will be extended for three months. For the remaining nine months of the financial year, business rates will be discounted [...]
Budget 2021: Self-employed grants extended to 600,000 individuals left behind March 3, 2021 Some 600,000 self-employed people who were unable to claim government grants will be now be able to do so. Speaking in Westminster this afternoon Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the self-employed income support scheme would be extended to support around 600,000 more people. The new policy will help thousands of newly self-employed who have not been [...]
Stamp duty holiday: Sunak confirms three-month property tax break extension March 3, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has this afternoon confirmed that the government will extend the stamp duty holiday for a further three months. Speaking in the House of Commons today as he announced the latest budget, Sunak said the holiday will be extended in full until 30 June, with a tapered end until the end of September. [...]
Budget 2021: Hospitality and retail firms to get £5bn of ‘restart’ grants March 3, 2021 The chancellor has announced a new ‘restart’ grant to help retail, hospitality and personal care businesses reopen from April. Retailers, which are due to reopen from April, will be eligible for grants of up to £6,000 per premises. Meanwhile pubs, restaurants and salons, which will be closed until June, will be able to claim grants [...]
New northern Treasury campus to be in Darlington March 3, 2021 Rishi Sunak is expected to announce today that the Treasury’s northern campus will be located in the County Durham town of Darlington. The move will see the Treasury base 750 members of staff in Darlington, after the town beat out competition from Leeds and Newcastle. The Financial Times also reports that the Treasury has decided [...]
Budget 2021: Four key issues for Rishi Sunak today March 3, 2021 Just a few months ago, Chancellor Rishi Sunak had hoped that his spring budget would be an opportunity to move the economic agenda away from Covid-19, and back towards the government’s ‘levelling up’ commitment. But as he prepares to announce his latest set of measures on later today, the reality looks very different. Despite the good [...]
Budget 2021: Furlough extension a life-saver but not enough, analysts say March 3, 2021 The extension of the furlough scheme will swoop in to save sectors and jobs across the UK, but analysts have urged the government to go further. Rishi Sunak will announce the move in today’s Budget, meaning the government will pay millions of people’s wages beyond the end of Covid restrictions. The chancellor said last night [...]
Budget: UK on track for upside scenario with net debt falling, says J.P. Morgan AM chief strategist March 3, 2021 As Rishi Sunak is getting ready to present this year’s Budget, there are two central questions the Chancellor will likely have been asking himself in the run up to today, according to Karen Ward, chief market strategist EMEA at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “How much further support will the economy need prior to restrictions being [...]
Rishi Sunak must take his time balancing the books or risk punishing those hardest hit by Covid March 3, 2021 Timing is everything. The Chancellor, as he weighs up his options to make some initial headway in his avowed “sacred duty” to balance the books, knows this only too well. His income support schemes are being closely managed to match the extension and easing of pandemic restrictions on the economy. While this is significant, so [...]
Furlough scheme extended to September in Rishi Sunak’s Budget March 2, 2021 The UK’s furlough scheme will be extended until September in tomorrow’s Budget, ensuring the government will pay millions of people’s wages past when Covid restrictions are set to end. The chancellor said tonight that it was “only right” that the government continued to help businesses and pay workers’ wages as the UK looks to lift [...]