Business budget: Hunt vows to cut taxes and boost investment by £20bn a year by 2030
Jeremy Hunt has vowed to cut taxes and boost investment by £20bn a year by 2030 ahead of the Autumn Statement which is set to be a business-focused ‘budget’.
He is set to unveil plans to turbo-charge UK plc in Wednesday’s fiscal event which will see him back British businesses with 110 measures to spark growth.
The Chancellor will stand up in the House of Commons after midday to unveil a major plan to unlock growth and productivity in the UK, cut taxes and encourage Brits back into work.
It comes after he confirmed workers would receive a pay rise of more than £1,800 a year when the National Living Wage increases by over £1 an hour — or 10 per cent – from April.
Hunt will say: “After a global pandemic and energy crisis, we have taken difficult decisions to put our economy back on track.
“Our plan for the British economy is working – but the work is not done.”
After inflation dropped to 4.6 per cent, he will say: “We will increase business investment in the UK economy by around £20bn a year over the next decade and get Britain growing.”
Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves hit back, claiming: “The Conservatives have become the party of high tax because they are the party of low growth.
“Nothing the Chancellor says or does can change their appalling record. Labour is now the party of fiscal responsibility and the party of business.”
Measures the Treasury is set to reveal are expected to include: slashing planning red tape; accelerating National Grid connections; backing entrepreneurs and growth industries; unlocking foreign investment; ramping up productivity; reforming welfare and levelling up.
Policies already unveiled included a £2.5bn plan to get up to 1.1m people to find work, alongside fresh benefit sanctions — as well as £4.5bn in manufacturing funding and a £320m pension plan to help deliver the Mansion House reforms.