Today Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled the contents of his 2021 Budget to the House of Commons.

Here is a summary of the major announcements:

Fiscal Position
• Inflation in September was 3.1 percent and is likely to rise further.
• The OBR estimate inflation will hit 4 percent.
• The majority of the rise in inflation can be explained by two global forces: demand for goods now outweighs that which supply chains can meet; and global demands for energy have surged at a time when supplies have been disrupted. The pressure caused by supply chains will continue for months, it cannot be solved overnight. These are shared global problems, not unique to the UK.
• Recovery is now expected to be quicker. The OBR forecast the economy to return to its pre covid level by the start of 2022.
• The OBR expect the economy to grow by 6 percent in 2022; by 2.1 percent in 2023; 1.3 percent in 2024; and 1.6 percent in 2025.
• Unemployment is expected to peak at 5.2 percent, which is lower than forecast. Wages have grown by almost 3.5 percent in real terms.
• OBR have revised their forecast for business investment.
• The OBR have revised down their scarring assumption from 3 percent to 2 percent.
• The Treasury will publish a new charter for budget responsibility. Public sector debt must fall as a percent of GDP; in normal times state will only borrow to invest; and the books must be balanced for everyday spending.
• The House will be asked to vote on this fiscal charter.
• The OBR reports that all of these new fiscal rules have been met.
• Every single department will see real terms increase in overall spending over this parliament.

• Underlying debt is forecast to be 85.2 percent of GDP this year. It will rise to 85.4 percent of GDP in 2023 before peaking at 85.7 percent in 2024.

Business, Economy and Financial Services

• £1m Annual Investment Allowance extended until March 2024
• Expanding the scope of R&D tax reliefs to include cloud computing and data costs.
• Reforming the tonnage tax regime to make it simpler and more competitive.
• The tonnage tax will reward companies for flying the UK Navy shipping flag.
• Flights between airports within the UK will be subject to a new lower rate of air passenger duty.
• Extending support for English airports for a further six months.
• Introducing a new ultra-long-haul band of air passenger duty.
• Confirmed the £1m investment allowance will be extended to March 2023.
• Lowering the bank surcharge tax, levied on profits, from 8 percent to 3 percent from April 2023.
• The overall rate of corporation tax on banks will increase from 27 percent to 28 percent.
• Raise the annual allowance for small competitor banks to £100m.
• Make the business rates fairer and timelier, reviewing them every three years.
• Introducing an investment relief to encourage businesses to invest in greener technologies.
• Introduce a business rates improvement relief, allowing businesses to make property improvements and pay no extra business rates for 12 months.
• Next years' planned increase in the multiplier will be cancelled.
• Announced a new 50 percent business rates discount for businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sector, up to £110,000.
• Cutting the main duty rate on alcohol from 15 to 6 percent.
• Stronger alcoholic drinks will have higher rates of alcohol duty; lower strength alcoholic drinks will have lower rates.
• Introducing a small producer relief, extending to cider and wine makers.
• Sparkling wines will pay the same duty as still wines of equivalent strength.
• Announced a draught relief for pubs, with a lower rate of duty on drinks from draught barrels of over 40 litres, cutting duty by 5 percent.
• Confirmed the planned increase duty on spirits will be cancelled from midnight tonight.
• Commits to spending £20bn a year on R&D to reach 2026/27 target, taking GDP spend from 0.7 percent to 1.1 percent.
• This will increase core science funding to £5.9bn a year by 2024/25 – covering the costs of Horizon Europe, establishing ARIA, and increasing Innovate UKs annual budget to more than £1bn.

• A new Global Talent Network, which is expected to work with UK businesses and research institutes, will seek to attract the best talent from around the world in science and technology

Devolution

• £8.7bn per year increase for the devolved administrations.
• £170m in Scotland, £120m in Wales, £50m in NI "more than their Barnett shares".
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
• £560m for youth services, to fund 300 youth clubs across the country.
• £205m to build or transform 8,000 football pitches, to transform grassroots sports across the UK
• £800m to protect museums, galleries, libraries and local culture.
• Over 100 regional museums and libraries will be renovated, restored and revived.
• £200m to start work on Beatles attraction on the Liverpool waterfront,
• Will review museum freedoms
• Extending tax relief for museums and galleries to March 2024.
• To support theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries to recover from covid, the tax reliefs for all those sectors will be doubled until April 2023. They will not return to normal rates until 2024. This is a tax relief for culture worth almost a quarter of a billion pounds
• £20bn in R&D by 2024/25, to secure the UK's future as a global science superpower and create high-skill, high-wage jobs across the country.
• Expanding scope of R&D tax reliefs to cloud computing and data costs.

• A further £8 million from Project Gigabit to deliver full fibre broadband to 3,600 premises in Scotland including Aberdeenshire, Angus, Highland, Moray and Perth and Kinross.

Education and Skills

• £170m for early year providers by 24/25 and £150m for training and development for early years workforce.
• £200m for Supporting Families programme.
• £200m to continue to Holiday Activities and Food Programme.
• £4.7bn by 24/25 for schools to restore per-pupil funding to 2010 levels in real terms, which is cash increase equivalent of over £1,500.
• Tripling investment in children with SEND for 30,000 new school places.
Budget & Spending Review 2021: Headline Announcements Page 3 of 5
• On top of £3.1bn already committed, nearly an additional £2bn for schools and colleges education recovery.
• £560m for youth services, enough for up to 300 youth clubs across the country
• Increase skills spending by £3.8bn over the Parliament expanding T Levels, increasing skills bootcamps, apprenticeships, training, short courses, and upgrading college buildings.
• A new UK-wide numeracy programme – Multiply – will receive £560m for up to 500,000 adults to improve their math skills.
• Increasing apprenticeship funding to £2.7bn in 2024/25.
• Over £900m per year for work coaches.
• £500m support for Children and families through: £300m for start family scheme; £200m for holidays activity and food programme; £200m for the Supporting Families Programme; £80m for Family Hubs; £100m for supporting the mental health of new or expectant parents; £120m investment in additional family support programmes.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• A further £625m for the Nature for Climate Fund, ensuring total spend of more than £750m by 2024-25 will help meet a commitment to plant at least 7,500 hectares of trees every year in England by 2025 and restore 35,000 hectares of peatland during this Parliament.

• More than £250m to protect and restore nature in England in support of the UK's world-leading target to halt biodiversity decline by 2030.

Energy and Utilities

• £30bn to create new green industries of the future as announced in the Net Zero Strategy.
• Planned rise in fuel duty scrapped.
• Commitment to spend £20bn per year on R&D, including £1.7bn for net zero R&D.
• Investment relief to encourage businesses to adopt green technologies such as solar panels.
• Funding to develop more green transport options, including zero emissions vehicles.
• Up to £1.7bn of direct government funding to enable a large-scale nuclear project to reach a final investment decision this parliament, subject to value for money and approvals.
• £380m for offshore wind sector, boosting jobs and investment across the UK including offshore wind ports in Teesside and the Humber.
• Confirms funding for the £385m Advanced Nuclear Fund developing the next generation of small and advanced modular reactor technologies.
• £3.9bn to decarbonise buildings, including £1.8bn to support tens of thousands of low-income households to make the transition to net zero while reducing their energy bills.
Foreign Affairs, Defence and International Development
• The UK will return to 0.7 percent GNI spending levels on ODA by 2024/25.
Health and Social Care
• Resource spending on healthcare will increase by £4.2bn by the end of this Parliament
• Health and social care levy will go direct to NHS and social care
• Health capital budget will be largest since 2010 – for record investment in R&D, better newborn screening, 40 new hospitals, 70 hospital upgrades, more operating theatres to tackle backlog, 100 community diagnostic centre
• Workforce will be supported to provide 50,000 more nurses and 50m more primary care appointments
• For social care, local government will be given £4.8bn of new grant funding over the next 3 years, the largest increase in core funding for over a decade
• £9.6bn for covid-19 health spending, which will fund the continuation of the vaccine programme, £33m to deploy two already acquitted covid-19 antivirals through a world-leading study
• £300m for first 1001 days, including tailored services to help with perinatal mental health
• £150m for training and development for early years workforce

• To help up to 300,00 more families 200m for supporting families' programme

Housing, Communities and Local Government

• A total housing settlement of £24bn.
• The Chancellor announced that £11.5bn will be set aside for new affordable homes
• The budget also confirmed the heavily trailed announcement of £1.8bn to build homes on brownfield land.
• Clarification of the residential property developer' tax. This tax will apply to developers with profits over £25m at a rate of 4 percent and will raise £5bn per year to be used for the removal of unsafe cladding.
• Funding to turn 100 areas of derelict land into pocket parks.
• Grant funding of £4.5b for local authorities.
• £640m for tackling homelessness and rough sleeping.
• The first round of bids from the Levelling Up Fund will dish out £1.7bn for projects in communities.
• Allocation of the first 21 projects to benefit from the £150m Community Ownership Fund, which will help communities across the UK protect and manage their most treasured assets.
• The planned increase in business rates next year has been cancelled.

• A one-year-only cut to business rates for hospitality businesses by 50 percent, a £1.7bn cut in total.

Home Affairs and Justice

• £3.8bn for the biggest prison building programme in a generation.
• £2.2bn for courts, prison and probation services, including £500,000 to reduce court backlogs.
• The Budget confirms the eligibility criteria for Scale-Up visa.
Transport and Infrastructure
• The Budget will include new funding to improve lorry park facilities.
• The suspension of the HGV levy will be extended for a further year until 2023.
• Vehicle excise duty will be frozen for HGVs.
• The Budget commits £5.7bn for London-style transport settlements for Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, the Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, West Midlands, and the West of England.
• The Budget commits £2.6bn for a long-term pipeline of over 50 local roads upgrades and over £5bn for local roads maintenance, enough to fill 1m more potholes each year.
• The Budget recommits to funding over £5bn for buses, cycling and walking.
• The Budget commits £6.1bn to boost the number of zero-emission vehicles, develop greener planes and ships, and encourage more trips by bus, bicycle and foot.
• The Budget commits £620m of new funding for public charge points and targeted zero emission vehicle grants.
Budget & Spending Review 2021: Headline Announcements Page 5 of 5
• Air Passenger Duty will be reformed with flights between airports in the UK subject to a new, lower rate of Air Passenger Duty from April 2023.
• From April 2023, a new ultra-long-haul band in air passenger duty will be introduced which will apply to flights over 5,500 miles with an economy rate of £91.
• Support for English airports will be extended for a further 6 months.
• A year-long 50 percent business rates discount for business in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

• The planned rise in fuel duty will be cancelled for a 12 th consecutive year.

Welfare

• National Living Wage will increase by 6.6 percent to £9.50 per hour.
• Return to an independent pay commission for public sector pay.
• The Universal Credit taper rate will be reduced from 63 percent to 55 percent by 1 December.