Budget 2021: Reactions from officials across Cornwall
The Chancellor has put coronavirus support for employees and businesses at the centre of his announcement
Last updated 3rd Mar 2021
The Chancellor has delivered his 2021 Budget with coronavirus recovery at the centre of his announcement.
Rishi Sunak has revealed a number of measures which are set to benefit people and businesses across Cornwall.
Everything from the budget which will affect you
Announcements include:
• The extension of the Furlough scheme until September
• A further extension of the Self Employed Income Support Scheme with 600,000 people who became self-employed last year
• Restart grants to help businesses reopen
• An extension of the reduced rate of 5% VAT for tourism and hospitality businesses for six months
• The 100% business rates holiday extended to June for eligible businesses
• A Super Deduction to encourage investment in businesses
• The introduction of Government-backed 95% mortgages for first time buyers
• The extension of the Stamp Duty holiday for three months
• The scrapping of planned increases in fuel and alcohol duty
What do MPs in Cornwall think?
The MP for Truro and Falmouth says it gives reassurance to families and businesses.
“Today’s Budget provides businesses and families in Truro and Falmouth with the support and reassurance they need to get through the pandemic.
“With £407 billion of support for families, jobs and businesses, it is right that the Chancellor is honest with the British people about our public finances.
“At the same time, I was elected on a commitment to level up communities like ours, and I am thrilled that this Conservative Government is now making good on that promise – by building our future economy and investing in every corner of the United Kingdom.
“I am also pleased that despite the pandemic, this Government has made the time and found the funds in the past year to continue to invest in Truro and Falmouth, with funding for a new school, new hospital and the continued dualling of the A30, and will continue to do all I can to make sure we get a fair share of national funding as your local MP.”
Cherilyn Mackrory, MP for Truro and Falmouth
The MP for St Austell and Newquay says it will help Cornwall and the country to build back better.
“This is a Budget that delivers for Cornwall. The extension to the furlough and self-employment-income support schemes are welcome, along with particularly the raft of measures designed to further help our hospitality and tourism industries, which I have long-campaigned for, as we look to ease lockdown measures and re-open for what I hope will be a busy summer season.
“Consumers will also join me in welcoming the continued freezes of fuel and alcohol duty, along with new incentives to help people buy their first homes, with government-back mortgages, and the extension of the Stamp Duty Holiday will help those who have been able to buy homes during the pandemic complete their purchases as planned.
“There is much more to do, but I am proud to be part of this Conservative Government that is doing all it can to help Cornwall and our country recover and build back better.”
Steve Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay
What does the opposition think?
“It feels a bit like the Chancellor has forgotten about Cornwall in this Budget. Extending the furlough scheme – as Labour has called for previously – will help over tens of thousands of people in Cornwall, and the cut to VAT for the hospitality and tourism industries is welcome, scratch beneath that and there’s a number of issues that go unaddressed.
“Firstly, there was no mention of social care or schools or crime at all; while the very keyworkers who have worked heroically to get us through this crisis are seeing their pay frozen again. The people of Cornwall have got to pay huge hikes to their Council Tax because the Government are refusing to keep their promise to reform Social Care funding or cover the cost of the pandemic.
“Only 2 places in the entire South West received anything from the Towns Fund, neither of those were in Cornwall. There still wasn’t any mention of the Shared Prosperity Fund – or how the money Cornwall receives from the EU Structural Fund would be replaced.
“Labour has been calling for a National Investment Bank for a long time, so it was good to hear the Chancellor take heed of that – I just hope that the government recognises the immense potential of green jobs and growth in Cornwall and will support us appropriately. We need an Investment Bank in Cornwall, not in Leeds. We need local control over our investment."
Cllr. Jayne Kirkham, Labour Deputy Group leader on Cornwall Council
“It’s shocking and depressing that Chancellor has shown so little interest in tackling the national housing crisis. Cornwall has the highest level in the country of households living in fuel poverty. The cut in ‘Green Homes’ funding will hit us particularly hard.
“It’s truly scandalous to see hundreds of millions being handed out to the owners of second properties in Cornwall, when so many local families are finding the cost of housing increasingly unaffordable. Why is the Chancellor not doing more to help Cornwall Council meet this need?
“Perhaps Rishi Sunak needs to talk less to Gordon Ramsay and start listening to local representatives who know how big the gap is in Cornwall between local earnings and local housing costs, is in Cornwall and understand the consequences of this for Cornish communities.
“Stamp duty holidays and 95% mortgages are not going to help most of the Cornish families in need of decent quality, genuinely affordable, secure homes’.”
Cllr. Cornelius Olivier
And what about unions?
The TUC in the South West says the Budget falls short in a number of areas.
“The chancellor is making a dangerous bet that the economy will bounce back on its own. He is gambling with the recovery when he should have acted to create jobs in our local communities before it’s too late.
“We are in the worst recession of our lifetimes. Yet while President Biden acts big, the chancellor thinks small.
“The last-minute extension of furlough, while welcome, ends far too soon, and will no doubt risk even more jobs and businesses.
“We had also hoped this budget would be an opportunity for the government to properly fix Universal Credit – it is a poor excuse as a safety net. Cutting universal credit in October will affect even more family incomes, and failing to fix decent sick pay risks more infections and yet another lockdown.”
“Today’s budget gave us nothing like the investment we need to stem the rising tide of unemployment. There wasn’t sufficient local investment to level-up the South West with millions of new, green jobs. And there was nothing to help boost the number of jobs needed in our health and social care systems.
“We are yet to be convinced that Freeports will solve the problems facing the region's economy as we come out of the pandemic. We will be arguing strongly that any Freeport planned must be established on principles that promote good quality jobs and protect against employment displacement and opportunities for tax evasion.”
“If the Chancellor really wanted to help working people, the least he could’ve done was give our all deserving key workers a pay rise. They are exhausted, at the brink of a mental health pandemic, and still battling through the COVID crisis. After a summer of claps by MPs for key workers, the chancellor’s silence was deafening.”
Nigel Costley, TUC South West
Where the budget reportedly 'falls short'
The TUC says the budget 'falls far short' of the level of action it wants to see.
It says the overall level of public investment to stimulate recovery has 'not been increased' by the budget.
The TUC budget submission called for the chancellor to:
• Extend the job retention scheme to the end of 2021, and bring in a wage floor to prevent furlough pay falling below the minimum wage
• Fast-track £85 billion investment in green infrastructure to create 1.2 million jobs over the next two years
• Make permanent the £20 per week increase in universal credit, and end the five-week wait for new universal credit claimants to receive payment.
• Unlock the 600,000 jobs in public services needed to fill vacancies and gaps.
• Fix statutory sick pay by raising it to £330 per week (to match the level of the real Living Wage) and extend eligibility to the two million low-paid workers currently excluded from SSP.
• Raise the national minimum wage to at least £10 per hour.
• Retain the Union Learning Fund, which supports 200,000 workplace learners annually.
• Increase child benefit and child tax credit and remove the two-child limit.