Chancellor urged to invest for North to realise its true potential
Leading Yorkshire figures have spelt out how Rishi Sunak can help the region before he unveils his first Budget as Chancellor. Geraldine Scott reports
AS RISHI Sunak prepares to deliver his first Budget as Chancellor - a position he perhaps did not expect to be in so soon - experts from across the region have given their view on what key sectors will want to see from the announcement on Wednesday.
With coronavirus dominating Government business, the Treasury is expected to be restrained in its spending in order to ensure there are enough pennies in the coffers to react to the illness if necessary.
But newly-gained constituencies, especially those in the former so-called ‘red wall’, will be looking for investment in infrastructure, research and development, and a realisation of the Government’s favourite buzzword of “levelling up” to prove voters made the right choice in abandoning often long-held allegiances last December.
Claire Ainsley, executive director at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), said: “One in five people in Yorkshire live in poverty, and one in three children.
“That’s more than a million people in this region alone, and a rise of 30,000 in the last five years.
“The Government pledged in its manifesto to tackle child poverty. This first Budget is a chance to show they meant it.
“JRF’s recent state-of-the-nation report revealed that a mix of housing costs, cuts to benefits, and work that doesn’t provide a reliable route out of poverty, is keeping families trapped.
“As Rishi Sunak prepares to deliver his Budget, our message is that investment is badly needed to ‘level up’ the UK.
“But it must be well-targeted on things that people on low incomes can see and feel on the ground.
“Many low-income voters do not feel as though they have been well-represented in politics, so the new government has to make a difference to them otherwise distrust in politics will deepen.”
But with the National Infrastructure Strategy to invest £100bn in boosting the economy and tackling the climate crisis expected to be delayed until after the announcement, this may not happen as quickly as hoped.
However the tampon tax is expected to be abolished in the Budget, with the Chancellor committing to slash the VAT on women’s sanitary products to zero. EU law has so far prevented member states from reducing the rate below five per cent, which means tampons and pads are treated as luxury items and not essentials.
But the Government plans to introduce the zero rate on January 1, the first day the laws no longer apply to the UK.
The Treasury estimates the move will save the average woman nearly £40 over her lifetime, with a cut of 7p on a pack of 20 tampons and 5p on 12 pads.
While the EU has been working to give member states the ability to scrap the tax, successive UK governments have committed to abolish it.