04/03/2021
BUDGET 2021 SUMMARY
Here are the key points from the Spring 2021 Budget:
• Corporation tax will increase to 25% from 2023 but income tax thresholds will freeze,
in the Chancellor's plans to boost the economy after Covid
• Rishi Sunak says it will take the UK "a long time to recover" but he will do "whatever
it takes"
• Recovery will be 'swifter and more sustained' than thought - unemployment may
peak at 6.5% in 2022, lower than the 11.9% predicted
• But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer calls it a Budget that "papers over the cracks"
with no plan to rebuild the "shattered" economy
• Sunak confirms the furlough scheme - which pays 80% of employees' wages - will be
extended until the end of September
• Employers will be asked to contribute 10% in July and 20% in August and September
• A further 600,000 self-employed people will be eligible for help as access to grants is
widened
• The Universal Credit top-up of £20-per-week will continue for a further six months
• The 5% reduced rate of VAT for tourism and hospitality will be extended for six
months to the end of September
• The 100% business rates holiday in England will continue from April until June
• The stamp duty cut will continue until the end of June, with the nil rate band set at
£250,000
• £19m is announced for domestic violence programmes
• There is £400m to help arts venues in England re-open; £300m for professional
sport; £25m for grassroots football
• Treasury will establish a new economic campus in Darlington
• The amount borrowed is comparable only with that during the two world wars, he
says; It will be the work of many governments, over many decades, to pay back
• UK to borrow a peacetime record of £355bn this year and borrowing will total £234bn
in 2021-22
Source: BBC News, 3 March 2021
The chancellor defends his Budget plans to raise corporation tax and says taxes will be spent on funding "strong public services".
