CLADDING
The biggest housebuilders will be hit with a £200million-a-year levy to help fix the cladding scandal.
The Government will charge property developers with profits over £25million at a rate of 4 per cent.
It will create a fund to remove cladding from high-rise buildings in the UK that was installed after the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June 2017.
Mr Sunak said: ‘We’re confirming £5billion to remove unsafe cladding from the highest-risk buildings, partly funded by the Residential Property Developer Tax.’
Many homeowners have faced potentially disastrous bills after finding out that cladding could be dangerous.
The McGovern family resides on the third level of a block that is considered ‘lower risk’ due to its height of below 18m.
A general view of Grenfell Tower in London. The Government will charge property developers with profits over £25million at a rate of 4 per cent to help fix the cladding scandal
The Government last night said it wanted to ‘turn Generation Rent into Generation Buy’ by spending £24billion on housing over several years.
This includes up 180,000 affordable homes.
Ministers claimed that this was the largest cash-investment in a decade with 65 percent of the money going outside London.
However, some residents claimed that it still fails many people who were involved in the scandal.
Teacher Emma McGovern says she has ‘got past the point of frustration’ after finding out that she will not qualify for the funding.
Mrs McGovern, 34, her husband Neil and children Tabitha, eight, Phoebe, seven, Jonah, five, and two-year-old Titus live on the third floor of a block deemed ‘lower risk’ because it is below 18 metres.
But it would still require repairs totalling £85,000 each for all residents at the four-storey building Oyster Court in Elephant and Castle, south London.
Mrs McGovern said: ‘Our block is so small, I can’t believe it. Not leaving anything in the Budget for it shows they don’t understand it.’
EDUCATION
An extra £1.8billion has been pledged to schools to help children recover from lost classroom time during the Covid pandemic. However, unions warn that it is not enough to save young lives.
Unions have hit out at an extra £1.8billion in funding pledged to help children recover learning lost during the pandemic – branding it ‘inadequate’.
The extra cash is on top of £3.1billion already promised. But the National Education Union (NEU) said it is not enough and could ‘damage’ life chances.
Sir Kevan Collins, the former schools catch-up tsar, originally said a recovery package of £15billion was needed over three years.
When it became clear that this was not possible, he quit.
The extra money will be used to help students who missed some of their courses due to school closings, or because their internet access was not available.
Kevin Courtney, of the NEU, accused the Government of doing education recovery ‘on the cheap’ and added: ‘This is simply not good enough.’
Geoff Barton, of the Association of School and College Leaders, added that it was ‘disappointing’ and ‘nowhere near what is needed’.
Schools will also get an extra £4.7billion in general funding by 2024/25 – returning it to 2010 levels in real terms.
Mr Sunak insisted it was equivalent to a cash increase for every pupil of more than £1,500.
FAMILIES
Family was put at the forefront of the Budget, with Start for Life services receiving £500million in the next three years.
Ministers will invest to create family hubs, Start for Life and family support services, as well as perinatal mental and breastfeeding support services and parenting programs.
The money will also be used to expand the Supporting Families program, which assists 300,000 families.
Mr Sunak stated that he would address concerns regarding childcare provision.
The Chancellor also said that there would be funding for a newborn genome screening programme to detect 200 rare diseases – potentially saving 3,000 babies every year.
Boris Johnson (right), Prime Minister of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, Chancellor, during a Wednesday visit to Fourpure Brewery in Bermondsey.
Genomics England will receive funding for a pilot project that uses sequencing to detect rare conditions in 100,000 babies.
According to The Daily Mail, thousands of babies are at high risk of death or disability because they aren’t screened for these diseases.
Every baby in the UK receives a heel prick test to check for conditions like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease. However, they are tested for only nine diseases – significantly fewer than in other developed countries.
…AND THE LOSERS
Social care providers said they were being ‘left out in the cold’ after Mr Sunak failed to announce any more ring-fenced funding.
The Chancellor said councils would receive £4.8billion extra to fund a range of services – but did not say any should be earmarked for social care.
The sector will have to rely on the £5.4billion raised by next year’s hike in National Insurance contributions – as well as the £162.5million fund to help the sector recruit and retain staff.
Charities and care groups said this was ‘nowhere near enough’ and it would have ‘serious and far-reaching consequences’.
With Boris Johnson as his partner, Mr Sunak explains his budget to Parliament.
The Ministry of Defence also lost, with real expenditures to be reduced by 0.4%.
The Chancellor’s move takes defence spending below what the MoD announced it would spend just four months ago.
Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, a former defence minister, said: ‘This is not in the spirit of Britain being a problem-solving, burden-sharing nation when our world is progressively becoming more unstable.’
Yesterday, the rail industry criticized the Budget’s failure to mention HS2
It comes amid growing doubts regarding the completion of high-speed railway project. The Treasury wants its eastern leg linking Birmingham to Leeds cut back.