Here are the key points from Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget speech:
• The chancellor says there are “challenging” months ahead, adding that inflation in September was 3.1% and is likely to rise further – the OBR expect it to average 4% over the next year
• Pressures caused by supply chains and energy crisis will “take months to ease”.
• Economy to return to its pre-COVID level at the turn of the year – an improvement on OBR forecasts revealed in March
• Economy expected to grow by 6% in 2022, and 2.1%, 1.3% and 1.6% over the next three years
• In July last year, at the height of the pandemic, unemployment was expected to peak at 12% but the OBR now expect it to peak at 5.2%
• Compared to 2020, wages have grown by b3.4%
• Underlying debt is forecast to be 85.2% of GDP this year
• It will reach 85.4% in 2022-23, before peaking at 85.7% in 2023-24
• It then falls in the final three years of the forecast from 85.1% to 83.3%
• Total departmental spending over this parliament will increase by £150bn, growing by 3.8% a year in real terms
• Spending on healthcare to increase by £44bn to over £177bn by the end of this parliament
• Extra revenue from health and social care levy will go towards NHS and social care as promised
• Health budget will be the largest since 2010, with record investment in research and development, better screening, 40 new hospitals and 70 hospital upgrades
• Mr Sunak says the budget funds an ambition to recruit 20,000 new police officers
• Extra £2.2bn for courts, prisons and probation services, including £500m to reduce the backlog in courts
• Programmes to tackle neighbourhood crime, reoffending, county lines crimes, violence against women and girls, victims’ services, and improved response to rape allegations
• £3.8bn for the “largest prison-building programme in a generation”