Alison Holt
Social affairs correspondent

Image source, PA Media

The failure to mention the long and short term funding of support for older and disabled people in the Budget is causing anger and dismay amongst charities and care providers.

Chair of the Independent Care Group Mike Padgham says “People feel angry because there wasn’t even a mention of social care.”

The adult social care system in England already faced a funding crisis, but the pandemic has made its problems more acute.

The government put in place a number of short term grants, and there is also money to help with workforce recruitment and to speed up the discharge of patients from hospitals into care homes - but all these grants finish in March.

The Department of Health and Social Care is said to be in discussions with the Treasury and still actively reviewing the need for funding, with a decision in due course.

The government has promised to fix social care and its funding once and for all, but there are increasing concerns that those plans are being pushed back, perhaps even to next year.

Image source, Reuters

Nick Spooner ran a 32 year old family business in Cheshire supplying catering equipment and supplies, but he warns this Budget has come too late for him as his business has gone under.

He says the business - which was started by his father - relied "on a fully functioning hospitality industry" but in October it had to close.

As the lockdown came in to effect last March they stopped receiving calls and emails.

"The business went dead," he said, and was "haemorrhaging money". He had bills to pay, including furloughing his staff at a cost of £4,500 per month.

In the end, he says, he just could not afford to run the business anymore.

“I got the minimum £10,000 grant from the government but it wasn’t enough for the business to survive." He had to sell his stock, pay his landlord and close the business.

He describes the Covid-19 loan scheme, for supporting businesses as "pointless".

He says he still had to pay Corporation Tax and in December the VAT that was supposed to be deferred came to a bill of £12,500.

Now, he claims Jobseeker's Allowance.

“This government has taken away my business and livelihood," he told the BBC, "a family business that was operating for 32 years went dead in a few months"

“I know we are not the only ones," he says, “I am speaking on behalf of all the forgotten businesses.”

Simon Jack
BBC Business Editor

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“A sharp intake of breath” could be heard across the business community as the chancellor announced that a decade of corporation tax cuts would be reversed at a stroke by raising them back to levels last seen in 2010.

A total of £50bn in additional taxes over the life of the parliament, albeit delayed until 2023 and offset by deductions that companies can make of £1.30 for every pound they invest in their businesses.

This is the opposite of jam tomorrow for UK businesses.

Read the full story here.

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Jonathan Geldart, director-general of the Institute of Directors, said the Budget delivered a solid platform for many businesses to relaunch as the economy reopens.

He hailed the extension of furlough as "a vital cushion" alongside restart grants and ongoing business rates relief.

Mr Geldart welcomed the widening of support to the self-employed, but said the Chancellor "missed a trick by not providing grants for company directors, who continue to be left out in the cold"

Mike Cherry, of the Federation of Small Businesses, agreed company directors "will be incredibly disappointed".

"This Budget will help many small firms with their final push through to September, but there is little here to aid job creation or help people return to work.

"Thousands of small businesses are on the brink of collapse and thousands more are suffering from low confidence as cash reserves dwindle."

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

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Decisions announced today will cost the Exchequer nearly £60bn in the coming year, but the tax rises that bite later are slated to bring in nearly half of that each year, three years from now.

Next year will still be all about supporting people and business to survive the crisis and then get back up and running.

Extending furlough, support for the self-employed and the extension of the extra £20 per week in universal credit payments will add another £23bn to the bill.

• Budget 2021: Key points at-a-glance
• 10 ways the Budget affects you

The business rates holiday and the lower VAT for some businesses will cost about £11.5bn.

The new incentives for businesses to invest will cost another £12bn next year (and the year after).

But, once things hopefully return to normal in a few years, the chancellor hopes to recoup some of that money from business, bringing in an extra £17bn from increased corporation tax.

You’ll be paying more in tax too. As salaries rise over time, more and more people will fall into higher tax bands generating an extra £8bn for the Treasury.

Duncan Leatherdale
BBC News Online

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Local businesses and officials have welcomed the chancellor's announcement that 750 senior civil servants will relocate from London to Darlington to form a new northern base for the Treasury.

So, what's so special about the town in north-east England?

Two and a half hours up the East Coast railway line from the capital sits Darlington.

Visitors alight in the Victorian station, protected from the elements (yes of course we get rain "oop north" but also plenty of sunshine) by the ornate metalwork archways spanning the platforms.

It was the railway that transformed Darlington from a small village into a bustling town, as celebrated with a large locomotive made from bricks.

A short walk takes you to the market place, which is large and lined by imposing Victorian-built banks and shops, and comes complete with its own picturesque market hall capped by its iconic clock tower.

Old cosy pubs, romantic restaurants, an elegant theatre and a new cinema can all be found in the streets leading from the centre, which give way to large green parks and tree-lined avenues of stately bay-windowed houses and postcard-perfect old English terraces.

Half an hour to the north are the steep cobbles of Durham, and to the south the boutique-laden expanses and alleyways of York.

Should you wish to escape to the country, a short drive will take you into the rolling hills of the Durham and Yorkshire Dales, or up on to the windswept North York Moors leading to the North Sea.

It really is a rather darling town.

Image source, HoC

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine says a million of small business owners were "looking to the chancellor to extend to them a lifeline". She says while there are changes to corporation tax in two year's time, the current help falls too short for what's needed now.

"We need to get them through the next few months," she says, adding "£5 million is not enough".

She warns that universal credit uplift of £20 will end just at the same time as furlough ends, meaning people could lose their jobs and not receive the extra help they'll need.

She calls for a universal basic income for everyone.

Image source, HoC

Joining by video link, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - now an independent MP - asks where people's protections are for their jobs and living standards in the budget.

He warns that the freezing of the personal tax allowance will essentially become a "stealth" tax rise.

He says many across the country will face a 5% rise in council tax to help councils short for the money.

There needs to be "pay increases" for those in the NHS rather than "just claps" for them, he adds.

He says not increasing statutory sick pay while not clamping down on tax evasion and tax avoidance "says everything" about Conservative party priorities.

Image source, HoC

Former Conservative chancellor Sajid Javid says he is left "in no doubt" that fiscal management is essential.

He says Rishi Sunak has "delivered on every count" to help people through the pandemic, but this has caused "unprecedented pressure" to public finances.

He says as the country returns to normality, there needs to be preparations for future events such as coronavirus.

He says climate change and declining biodiversity should be eventualities that the government starts to prepare for.

He says it has been a "long hard winter" and "we have all been hibernating for many months," but more positively he says the "frost is beginning to thaw".

This budget is "the first step" to revitalising the economy, he says.

Image source, HoC

In the Commons, Labour's chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Meg Hillier, questions what will "suddenly change" in September meaning that those on Universal Credit will no longer need an extra £20.

She warns there are "many people" who have "no prospect of work" in the near future as the effects of the pandemic will continue to be felt from employers.

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Many in the aviation industry are infuriated that it was not mentioned during today’s budget.

Just over a week ago, the prime minister did include international travel in the road map out of lockdown, saying that it would resume no sooner than 17 May.

But with many predicting that it will take months, if not years, for the industry to return to profitability, airlines and airports had said that further support would be needed.

While the industry will be pleased that furlough and airport business rates relief is continuing, no further sector specific support was promised in today’s budget.

Airport group Heathrow said that the Chancellor "continues to ignore the UK’s aviation sector" and that today was a ‘missed opportunity to ensure the sector can play a key role in the country’s economic recovery'.

While British Airline Pilots Association said it was ‘absolutely dismayed’ that aviation was not included.

All eyes will now be on the government’s Global Travel Task Force to provide an idea of how the sector can reopen safely this summer.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, one key announcement in the chancellor's Budget is a six-month extension of a £20-a-week uplift in universal credit payments.

Caroline, a childminder from Northern Ireland who had to claim universal credit when the pandemic hit, says the six-month extension is just "another cliff edge to dread".

"It leaves us facing the winter months with uncertainty again... I wish the government would listen to us," she adds.

Various organisations had been calling for the increase to be kept in place for at least a year, or for it to be made permanent - and now they're urging the government to think again.

Paul Noblet, head of public affairs at Centrepoint, says: "Extending the uplift for only six months does not go far enough, given the ending of furlough and the increase in unemployment that we could face before Christmas."

The British Psychological Society warns the extension will be "very damaging" to people's mental health.

BPS's Dr Julia Faulconbridge says: "People need security at this turbulent time and today the chancellor has failed to provide that."

Helen Barnard, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, adds that the government must "urgently right" the "injustice" faced by people who are sick, disabled or carers claiming legacy benefits - all of whom are excluded from the support.

Image source, HoC

Back again to the Commons, and SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford says the forecasts for economic growth in the Budget show a "poverty of ambition".

This attitude is "imperilling" the national finances, he adds, and holding back the growth of wages.

Making the £20-a-week universal credit uplift permanent would have given some "hope" to those on low incomes, Blackford argues, accusing the Conservatives of being "nostalgic" for austerity.

Asking businesses to make increased furlough contributions "isn't acceptable" when they "don't have the cashflow to do it", he adds.

Mr Blackford also says the chancellor "should be embarrassed" for not doing more to tackle child poverty.

Reality Check

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Chancellor Rishi Sunak ended his Budget speech with a policy he said “exemplifies the future economy” – the setting up of freeports. These are special economic zones where a country’s normal tax and customs rules don’t always apply.

He said this was a policy “we can only pursue now that we are out of the European Union”.

This is a claim made by Boris Johnson several times in the past, which we’ve looked at before.

In fact, there are around 80 free ports in Europe and the UK had them until 2012. But supporters of free ports argue that they are more beneficial to the UK – after Brexit – because it is no longer tied to EU rules on state aid and subsidies.

It is true that the government will now have more flexibility, but the Brexit trade deal still requires subsidies to be justified, otherwise they could be challenged in UK courts. We’ve looked at that in more detail here.

The government says it wants the new freeports – and it has announced eight of them today - to be ‘national hubs for global trade and investment,’ with an emphasis on innovation.

But critics point out that that while they can benefit the areas where they are set up, they can divert investment from other areas and there is a risk of tax dodging and lower employment standards.

The government says it has listened to the criticisms carefully, and has adjusted its freeports proposal, external accordingly.

Image source, Getty Images

Rich is self-employed and says last year "all my money stopped". He applied for universal credit and received £85.

He says he tried to challenge it, but he was told the system said his partner's income had been taken into consideration even though she works "just 30 hours a week".

They had to rely on her income to "live, pay bills, rent and pay for the car".

Rich says the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is only coming into effect from now for those who were previously missed off from financial help, so he asks "what about the money we should get to cover at least February and March?"

He says they've had no money coming in since January and are "really struggling right now".

“People on furlough at least continue to get 80% of their wages, whereas lower income people self employed are really being stung.”

Image source, HoC

Back in the Commons, MPs are continuing to digest the chancellor's Budget announcements.

The chair of the Treasury Committee and Conservative MP Mel Stride welcomes the Budget but adds that "the devil is in the detail".

He says the corporation tax increase, is "quite a hike" but adds that the UK will still remain "internationally competitive" and says it is a "reasonable move".

He says he is disappointed there was no mention help for one group of the self-employed - "directors paying themselves through dividends yet not having those dividends counting towards furlough".

And he expresses concern that many businesses will be struggling with debt and warns that without help small companies will go out of business.

Image source, Reuters

The CBI, the business lobbying group, has welcomed many announcements in Rishi Sunak's Budget, in particular the new "super deduction" which will allow firms to cut their tax bills by 25p for every £1 they invest in new equipment.

But it has quite a different view on the rise in corporation tax:

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Rishi Sunak that the stamp duty holiday will be extended for another three months.

Stamp duty is a tax paid on the sale of property or land in England and Northern Ireland.

Last summer, the government temporarily increased the amount at which the tax is paid to £500,000, for property sales.

The tax break was due to end on 31 March, but it will now end on 30 June.

After this date, the starting rate of stamp duty will be £250,000 until the end of September. Stamp duty will then return to the usual threashold, and will be paid on property sold for more than £125,000.

The extension means anyone completing a purchase on a main residence costing up to £500,000 before 30 June will not pay any stamp duty. More expensive properties would only be taxed on their value above that amount.

In Scotland and Wales, property sales tax is known as land and buildings transaction tax, and land transaction tax respectively.

Read our detailed explanation.

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The extension of the stamp duty holiday will provide relief for people buying and selling homes, according to property group Knight Frank.

“The extension is fair because completion dates for buyers and sellers have been jeopardised through no fault of their own," says Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank.

The conveyancing system has simply been overwhelmed by the volume of transactions since the market re-opened last May. The three-month taper until October will make any cliff-edge in June feel less steep but we would still expect a surge in activity to capitalise on the full saving.

He added that he expects "more sellers to return to the market this month as home-schooling ends and Covid-19 cases continue to fall".

"This will put downwards pressure on prices in the second quarter an effect that could be magnified if more owners now believe they can complete before an extended stamp holiday duty deadline.”

Kevin Peachey
Personal finance reporter

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Much of the support the chancellor spoke about for our finances has been announced by the Treasury in the last few days.

But one significant move was not.

The Conservative manifesto said that income tax would not rise.

However, by freezing the threshold at which people pay the basic and higher rates of tax from 2022 and 2026, there will be many people who get a pay rise and find themselves paying more in tax.

That is because they will be dragged into a new tax band. This will raise a lot of money for the Treasury.

Read the full story here.