{"id":285,"date":"2020-07-09T15:33:34","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T14:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/?p=285"},"modified":"2020-08-18T15:36:50","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T14:36:50","slug":"the-chancellors-summer-economic-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/2020\/07\/09\/the-chancellors-summer-economic-update\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chancellor\u2019s Summer Economic Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
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\u201cNo one will be left without hope\u201d<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In March, Rishi Sunak unveiled \u201cone of the largest and most comprehensive economic responses in the world\u201d<\/em> to protect the UK\u2019s population against the impact of coronavirus. The \u00a3160bn plan, the Chancellor said, was just the first stage of the government\u2019s response to the pandemic. Four months later, on 8 July, the Chancellor stepped up once again to reveal the second phase, \u201ca plan for jobs\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In his speech, Mr Sunak did not shy away from the \u201cprofound economic challenges\u201d<\/em> facing the nation. He revealed that, in just two months, the economy contracted by 25% \u2013 the same amount it grew in the past 18 years. Meanwhile, the IMF is predicting that we face the deepest global recession since records began. Despite this dire outlook, the Chancellor reassured the nation \u201cI will never accept unemployment as an unavoidable outcome\u201d <\/em>and proclaimed that \u201cno one will be left without hope.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After stating that a full Budget and spending review would follow in the autumn, Rishi Sunak moved on to the subject at hand, his three-step plan to \u2018support, create and protect\u2019 jobs.<\/p>\n

Supporting jobs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Sunak\u2019s first announcement concerned the imminent and much-disputed end of the furlough scheme in October. He responded to critics\u2019 calls for extensions to the scheme by saying it would be \u201cirresponsible\u201d <\/em>to give people hope they will be able to return to jobs that only still exist due to furlough. Instead, he said, the government would support employers to bring back their staff with a one-off \u2018Job Retention Bonus\u2019 of \u00a31,000 per furloughed employee, who is still employed at the end of January next year.<\/p>\n

Next, the Chancellor turned his attention to the plight of younger people across the UK, who have been particularly vulnerable to unemployment during the crisis. In response, he announced a new \u2018Kickstart Scheme\u2019 to incentivise employers to create jobs for 16 to 24-year-olds. An initial \u00a32bn has been earmarked for the scheme, with the government footing the bill for six months\u2019 wages (100% of the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, employers can top this wage up). He also announced measures encouraging businesses to hire apprentices and trainees.<\/p>\n

Creating jobs<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second part of his plan focuses on creating \u201cgreen jobs\u201d<\/em> to enable a \u201cgreen recovery\u201d. <\/em>Firstly, he announced a \u00a32bn Green Homes Grant scheme which, from September, will enable homeowners to apply for vouchers to spend on making their property more energy efficient. The grants will cover at least two-thirds of the cost up to \u00a35,000 per household. Secondly, \u00a31bn will be made available to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings. Overall, this \u00a33bn package could make over 650,000 homes more energy efficient and support around 140,000 green jobs.<\/p>\n

Secondly, in order to create and support jobs in the housebuilding and property sectors, he said that people needed to feel \u201cconfident to buy, sell, renovate, move and improve.\u201d<\/em> Therefore, he announced a temporary increase in the Stamp Duty threshold from \u00a3125,000 to \u00a3500,000, effective immediately and running through to 31 March next year. He was keen to point out that this measure will mean that nine out of ten people who are purchasing a home in England and Northern Ireland, will pay no Stamp Duty.<\/p>\n

Protecting jobs<\/strong><\/p>\n

The tourism and hospitality sectors are huge employers in the UK and have been some of the hardest hit industries during the coronavirus pandemic, with 80% of hospitality firms forced to cease trading temporarily in April. Ensuring there is enough demand is key to enabling businesses to reopen successfully, said the Chancellor. Therefore, the first measure announced was a cut to the rate of VAT applied on food, accommodation and attractions from 20% to 5%, effective from Wednesday 15 July 2020 until 12 January 2021.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the Chancellor unveiled the \u2018Eat Out to Help Out\u2019 scheme, which he said, \u201chas never been tried in the UK before\u201d<\/em>. In order to encourage customers back into pubs, cafes and restaurants, the scheme will offer customers a 50% discount (up to \u00a310 per person) on sit-down meals between Monday and Wednesday in August, with businesses able to recoup the cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not be defined by this crisis\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Summing up his speech, the Chancellor claimed that \u201cWe will not be defined by this crisis, but by our response to it<\/em>.\u201d It was his hope, he concluded, that the plan would \u201cturn our national recovery into millions of stories of personal renewal.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It is important to take professional advice before making any decision relating to your personal finances. Information within this document is based on our current understanding and can be subject to change without notice and the accuracy and completeness of the information cannot be guaranteed. It does not provide individual tailored investment advice and is for guidance only. Some rules may vary in different parts of the UK. We cannot assume legal liability for any errors or omissions it might contain. Levels and bases of, and reliefs from, taxation are those currently applying or proposed and are subject to change; their value depends on the individual circumstances of the investor. No part of this document may be reproduced in any manner without prior permission.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,39],"tags":[],"hd_content_source":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/quilter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}