Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed details of his Budget in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon.

Outlining the government's tax and spending plans for the year, Mr Sunak said his plans focused on the 'post-Covid' era.

While Hitchin Nub News is resolutely non-political, we do offer our platform for politicians and voters of all persuasions to respond to local, national and international issues.

So, read on for Hitchin resident and Lib Dems councillor and prospective parliamentary candidate Sam Collins and his take on chancellor Sunak's budget - and how it will affect people in our town and surrounding areas.[.B]

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Ever since I have been involved in politics one thing has been abundantly clear, the Conservative party seem to be at war with our children and young people.

In North Hertfordshire when they were in administration, the Tories even attempted to close playgrounds in order to fund an increase in their allowances as councillors.

This was soon stopped and now, under entirely different management the council is investing in playgrounds and taking children and young people seriously.

However the Budget speech by Rishi Sunak made it clear where his priorities lay, indeed the chancellor mentioned the word "wine" twice as many times as he did either "education" or "children".

Our children have been let down by this government time and again throughout the pandemic.

The chancellor's announcement on catch-up funding is still only a third of what government's own adviser recommended. Failing pupils and parents yet again.

There were clear calls for the government to to pledge the £15 billion their own catch-up tsar proposed, to tackle the up to £46,000 our children will lose out on. Instead they're offering just £1 per school day.

Under this chancellor, we have the highest tax burden since the Second World War, but the lowest school spending per pupil in a generation.

In fact the chancellor gave more money to his banker mates, and spent more money on cutting the price of sparkling wine than he gave to our children and schools in catch-up funding.

Every teacher and headteacher I speak to tells me the same thing, the underfunding in our schools is drastic, and urgent action is needed.

Which is why I fully support the Liberal Democrats demand for an additional emergency Children's Budget, with £15 billion for schools catch-up funding as recommended by the government's own adviser.

I'm focussing on schools and young people as you simply cannot build a strong economy without investing in younger generations and allowing them to fulfil their potential.

Parents and children who have sacrificed so much during the pandemic deserve a fair deal. Instead this Budget looks set to treat education and our children's future as an afterthought.

That could do great economic harm to our nation. At a time where the nation, our high streets, and business in general is reeling from the impact of both Brexit and the ongoing pandemic the government is hitting local small businesses with a tax bombshell.

Hitchin businesses

Small and medium-sized businesses, from tech start-ups to hairdressers and cafes, in Hitchin and Harpenden will pay an extra £4.1m a year due to the rise in national insurance, research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has found.

Boris Johnson broke his 2019 manifesto promise by raising employer National Insurance Contributions by 1.25%, impacting small businesses in our area and across the country.

House of Commons Library research has detailed the impact of the tax rises, and it is estimated that the average micro-business employing up to nine people will pay more than £1,000 extra a year as a result of the tax hike.

We need a tax cut for local entrepreneurs and business owners, especially those who were excluded from Covid support schemes, to help them create jobs and drive our economic recovery.

The Liberal Democrats locally and nationally would have quadrupled the Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £16,000 for at least two years, meaning taxes on small businesses would be slashed by £5.5 billion across the country next year.

However the chancellor and the Conservatives have instead opted to hit local small business with damaging tax increases, which is the last thing businesses in our area need deal with right now.

Making this an even more bitter pill to swallow is the fact that the Chancellor is cutting taxes on the banks, reducing the banking surcharge will cost the Treasury over £3.8 billion over the next four years, but boosting small business instead could have actually benefitted the treasury over the same period.

Tax increases will hit many others in the pocket too, deepening the growing cost of living crisis in Britain.

While we live in a relatively affluent area not everyone is likely to care about the cuts in the cost of Prosecco.

A typical worker on £30,000 will see their take home income cut by £255 next year as a result of tax increases, something the Conservatives promised not to do at the 2019 General Election.

People who work hard, pay their taxes and play by the rules needed support.

Instead, the Chancellor could only offer tax hikes, benefit cuts and no answer to energy bills skyrocketing by the day.

The Chancellor is clearly short-changing the public and taking them for granted.

The government wasted £2 billion of taxpayers' money on PPE that was of such poor quality it couldn't be used, and there are many questions about the test and trace system at the moment which cost many billions more.

Something that seemed to be entirely lacking from the budget was the third great crisis facing our nation at the moment, the environment and the climate crisis.

At a time when raw sewage is being pumped into our seas and rivers and climate change is the biggest threat in our futures, you might expect some action from the Chancellor.

We did get action but in the wrong direction, astonishingly in the days leading up to the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, the chancellor cut passenger duty for domestic flights in the UK.

This does not impact the Scottish Highlands and Islands and instead seems to simply encourage people to fly around the UK rather than take the train.

This could result in significantly increased demand for flights out of Luton Airport which will have a really detrimental impact on our area, not in terms of CO2 emissions from the flights but also vehicle emissions from people travelling to the airport and the noise issues faced by many in our area.

'A Budget lacking in real ideas'

Overall this budget was lacking in real ideas, and it also showed what the government, and the chancellor's real priorities are.

There were 7,752 words in Rishi Sunak's speech, but zero mentions of the climate crisis or the environment, there was hardly any help for childrenor families and there there was a tax hike for small business.

However there were tax breaks for banks and airlines, while sparkling wine has got a bit cheaper.

This budget, like the Conservative party, has failed the nation and our area once again.

Rishi Sunak is out of touch with the British people, he missed the chance to avoid a cost of living crisis which will cause sleepless nights for families up and down the country, and he had no answer to energy bills skyrocketing by the day.

For me though the biggest betrayal of this budget is the woeful lack of action to help our children recover from the pandemic.

All the Chancellor could scrape together was a miserable pound a day for our children to catch-up after months of being locked out of classrooms.

I repeat the fact that the chancellor spent more today on cutting the price of a prosecco than saving our children's futures.

This tells you everything you need to know about the Government's priorities.

Sam Collins

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If you would like to make your voice heard on the Budget email Nub News regional editor [email protected]

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Notes:

 

The Chancellor let down parents today, providing less in extra catch up funding than his tax cut for the big banks. He is offering just an extra £1 of extra catch up funding for each child, compared to a £6 a day tax cut for each banker.

 

The £4.9 billion total catch up funding (including £1.7 billion announced in 2020, £1.4 billion in June 2021 and £1.8 billion announced today) divided amongst 8.3 million students over three years comes out at £200 per child per year. Over the course of 180 school days in a year, each child will be given just £1.11 each school day to catch up on vital learning.

 

According to the Treasury's policy costings, the cut to the Bank Surcharge will cost £3.82 billion in the four years from 2023-24 to 2026-27. In 2026-27 alone, it will cost £1.02 billion. According to the latest figures from UK Finance, total employment in the banking sector stands at 475,825. This means that in 2026-27, the Bank Surcharge cut will amount to £5.87 spent per banker per day.