Spring Budget 2023: What has been announced? Every measure in the budget
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announces his Spring Budget 2023 – here’s a list of all the measures announced.
- Energy Price Guarantee stays at £2,500 for next three months
- Weekly 30 hours of free childcare for every child over the age of nine months. This is for families where all adults are working at least 16 hours
- Pre-payment meter charges in line with comparable direct debit charges
- £63m fund to keep public leisure centres and pools afloat
- Charities department to get cash injection of £100m
- £10m over two years to help voluntary sector with suicide prevention
- From 1 August, duty on draught products in pubs 11p lower than supermarkets
- Fuel duty frozen for the next 12 months
- £11bn added to defence budget over five years – and nearly 2.25% of GDP by 2025. Aim to raise this to 2.5% as soon as possible
- £30m to increase support and housing for veterans
- 12 new investment zones confirmed – “12 potential Canary Wharfs”. If chosen, areas will have access to £80m of support
- £200m invested in local regeneration projects across England
- £161m for regeneration projects in Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority
- £400m for new Levelling Up Partnerships in areas including Redcar and Cleveland, Blackburn, Oldham, Rochdale, Mansfield, South Tyneside, and Bassetlaw
- Second round of the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, allocating £8.8bn over next five-year funding period
- Potholes Fund boosted by £200m
- In Scotland, £8.6m of targeted funding for the Edinburgh Festivals and £1.5m funding to repair the Cloddach Bridge
- £20m for the Welsh government to restore the Holyhead Breakwater
- In Northern Ireland, £3m to extend the Tackling Paramilitarism Programme and up to £40m to extend further and higher education participation
- Mayors’ financial autonomy boosted by agreeing multi-year single settlements for the West Midlands and the Greater Combined Manchester Authority at the next spending review
- On business taxation, there will be a new policy of “full expensing” for next three years, with intention to make it permanent
- Enhanced credit for small and medium-sized businesses that spend on R&D – a £1.8bn package of support
- 45% and 50% tax reliefs extended for theatres, orchestras and museums
- Climate Change Agreement scheme extended for two years
- £20bn allocated for development of Carbon Capture Usage and Storage. This will support up to 50,000 jobs
- Subject to consultation, nuclear power to be classed as “environmentally sustainable” in green taxonomy
- “Great British Nuclear” to help nuclear provide one quarter of electricity by 2050. UK is launching the first competition for Small Modular Reactors
- £900m of funding to implement recommendations in independent review for an Exascale supercomputer
- Research and innovation programme of £2.5bn set out in quantum strategy
- Prize of £1m a year for 10 years to ground-breaking AI research – the Manchester Prize
- White paper to be published on disability benefits reform. Plans will abolish the Work Capability Assessment in Great Britain and separate benefit entitlement from an individual’s ability to work
- Universal Support announced for England and Wales. This is a voluntary employment scheme for disabled people which will invest up to £4,000 to help get them into work
- £400m plan to increase availability of mental health and expand Individual Placement and Support scheme
- Pensions annual tax-free allowance upped by 50% from £40,000 to £60,000
- £1m lifetime allowance abolished on pensions savings
- Pilot of incentive payments of £600 for childminders who sign up to the profession, rising to £1,200 for those who join through an agency
- Funding boost to nurseries providing free childcare under the hours offer by £204m from this September rising to £288m next year
- Childcare costs paid upfront for parents who are moving into work or want to increase their hours. Maximum they can claim upped to £951 for one child and £1,630 for two children
- The government will change minimum staff-to-child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5 for two-year-olds in England but make it “optional”
- All schools in England to offer wrap-around care either side of the school day for children by September 2026.