Matt Warman, MP for Boston and Skegness, has welcomed measures in this year’s Budget to boost high streets and put more money in the pockets of local families.

To boost high streets, the Government announced plans to cut business rates by a third for two years for retailers with a rateable value under £51,000, saving 90 per cent of all shops up to £8,000 each year. The Budget also contained a £675 million Future High Streets Fund, which will support local areas to develop and fund plans to make their high streets fit for the future. The Fund will also establish a new High Streets Taskforce to provide hands-on support to local areas and best practice.

For hard working local families, the Chancellor confirmed an increase in the Personal Allowance, to £12,500 from April 2019, so that people can keep more of what they earn. This will save a typical basic rate taxpayer £130 compared to 2018-19 and £1,205 compared to 2010-11. Fuel Duty also remains frozen for the ninth year in a row, saving motorist over £1,000 since 2010, as well as a freeze on beer, cider and spirits duties.

Public services will also see a financial boost, with overall investment set to increase in real terms over the next five years. Public spending will increase overall by 1.2 per cent in real terms each year, with precise plans to be set out at the Spending Review. An additional £400 million was announced for schools, worth £10,000 to the average primary and £50,000 to the average secondary, as well as funding for the Prime Minister’s NHS Commitment, announced in June, with £20.5 billion more in real terms by 2023-24, and an average real growth rate in the NHS’s budget of 3.4 per cent a year.

Other measures announced on Monday include:

• Support for councils with an additional £1 billion of funding, including £650 million for social care, £84 million for children’s social care programme over five years and £420 million for potholes this year.
• Investment in Universal Credit, worth an additional £1.7 billion, to increase the work allowance – the amount families can earn before losing benefits – by £1,000, worth £630 per year to those households.
• An additional £13 million to improve access to flood information, helping to reduce damage to homes and lives. This includes an expansion to the flood warning system, protecting an additional 2,800 at-risk properties across the East Midlands.
• A 2 per cent Digital Services Tax to ensure large digital firms pay a fair share of tax to support our public services.

Commenting, Matt said,

“The Chancellor has set out how the hard work of the British people is paying off, and more stable public finances mean we are able to invest more to benefit hard working families. The support for high streets in particular is very good news for our constituency; they lie at the heart of our communities, in both towns and villages, so it is important to do all we can to support them to adapt to the pressures the increase in online shopping has brought. I know that retailers across Boston and Skegness will welcome this boost. Thanks to the continually improving economy, we now we turn our eyes to the future, meaning more support for our great public services, help for household budgets now, and investment for the long-term to deliver higher living standards.

• The Budget can be read in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/budget-2018