THERE will be major Universal Credit, stamp duty and furlough updates this week when Rishi Sunak unveils the UK’s 2021 Budget.

The Chancellor will reveal the country’s spending plan on Wednesday – the first since coronavirus‘ devastating impact on the economy became clear and the first since the Brexit transition period came to an end.

He will outline his plan to rescue the UK, spelling exactly what areas of British life will see a spending boom and the ways in which hardest hit citizens will be supported by the Government.

More support for workers, struggling families and businesses is on the cards for Sunak, along with tax hikes to cover the cost of the schemes.

Sunak has put Britain’s beleaguered high streets at the heart of his economic plans, promising a £5bn lifeline for bricks-and-mortar shops and pubs.

Meanwhile there could be a new levy for online retailers – though experts have previously warned this could be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

The Budget is due to take place at around 12.30pm on Wednesday, once Prime Minster’s Questions ends in the House of Commons.

RISHI’S RESCUE

RISHI Sunak will give a press conference at 5pm on Wednesday after delivering his Budget to the nation.

The Chancellor revealed he will take questions from the public and the press after his statement in the House of Commons, which usually takes place at around 12.30pm.

Read more here.
BORIS JOHNSON CONFIDENT BUDGET WILL ‘PAVE WAY FOR STRONG RECOVERY’

Boris Johnson said today that he was confident the Budget would “build on everything we have done” to look after businesses and the public throughout the coronavirus crisis.

“I’m not going to anticipate what the Chancellor is going to say on Wednesday,” the Prime Minister told reporters.

“But I am absolutely confident that it will be a Budget that builds on everything we have done to look after the businesses and the people of this country throughout the pandemic.

“But that also paves the way for a strong, jobs-led recovery. That’s what our focus is going to be on.”
WHEN IS RISHI SUNAK’S PRESS CONFERENCE?

Rishi Sunak will give a press conference at 5pm on Wednesday after delivering his Budget to the nation.

The Chancellor revealed he will take questions from the public and the press after his statement in the House of Commons, which usually takes place at around 12.30pm.

He is expected to give the nation an update on the latest finances, after the Treasury has spent billions trying to keep the economy afloat this year through the pandemic.

BUDGET MORTGAGE GUARANTEE SCHEME

A new Government scheme will let first-time buyers struggling to secure a mortgage get on the property ladder with just a 5 percent deposit.

It means under the mortgage guarantee programme, house buyers will need just a £10,000 deposit to be able to afford a £200,000 home.

The Prime Minister mentioned the scheme at the virtual Conservative party conference last year, when he outlined his plans to turn “generation rent” into “generation buy”.

But the programme is expected to be officially unveiled by the Chancellor in the Budget on Wednesday.

Read the full story here.
DOWNING STREET SAYS SCHOOLS WILL REOPEN ON MARCH 8 AS PLANNED

Downing Street has said schools in England will reopen on Monday as planned despite the discovery of a number of cases of a Brazilian variant of the coronavirus.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Schools will reopen on March 8 as we set out in the road map.”

The spokesman said that included South Gloucestershire where two cases had been found.

“We have deployed the extra surge testing in Gloucestershire to ensure that if there are any other cases in that local area we can identify then and ensure those people are isolated,” he said.
JEREMY HUNT CALLS FOR TIGHTER BORDER CONTROLS FOLLOWING DISCOVERY OF SIX P.1 VARIANT CASES

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said the discovery of six cases of the Brazilian P1 variant of the coronavirus in the UK showed the need for tighter controls.

“Absolutely we have got to look at what has gone wrong,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One programme.

“It shows that it needs to be tightened up still further because if we are going to protect the road map out of lockdown then the name of the game is going to be stop new variants coming in, some of which may end up being immune to the new vaccines.

“Where we need to get to is a much, much more thorough combination of test and trace and genetic sequencing so we are not just testing the people who have been near someone who tested positive, but we also are working out where the original infection happened and which variant it is.

“You can only do that if you bring the cases right down.”
GORDON BROWN SAYS GOVERNMENT IS BETRAYING A GENERATION OF UNEMPLOYED

Former prime minister Gordon Brown is urging the Chancellor to extend job support schemes in his Budget this week or risk “betraying a generation of unemployed”.

A report by the Alliance For Full Employment (AFFE), set up by Mr Brown, estimates there are at least 1,000 under-25s in every constituency in Britain now classed as long-term unemployed – without a job for at least six months.

Mr Brown said the research showed that only three in every 1,000 long-term unemployed under-25s have received help from the Government’s job opportunity Kickstart scheme.

Mr Brown also urged Rishi Sunak to bring forward the start date of Restart, the Government’s adult unemployment scheme.

“Government complacency is betraying a generation of unemployed,” he said.
BUDGET 2021: PRICE OF CIGARETTES TO RISE ON WEDNESDAY

Rishi Sunak will announce tax rises in his Budget on Wednesday.

Tobacco tax is expected to increase, pushing up the price of a packet of cigarettes.

This tax increase would bring in £30million, according to estimates published by HMRC.

Mr Sunak will be looking for ways to cover the cost of coronavirus support schemes which are expected to be extended in his Budget.
BUDGET 2021: RISHI SUNAK MAY EXTEND STAMP DUTY HOLIDAY BY THREE MONTHS

There have been reports recently that Chancellor Rishi Sunak could extend a stamp duty holiday which is due to end on March 31 by another three months in this week’s Budget.

A new 5% deposit mortgage scheme is also in the pipeline. Many low-deposit mortgages disappeared at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said: “January may not be a time of year generally associated with a flurry of activity in the housing market, but on the mortgage side, business was robust with approvals and borrowing remaining strong.”

Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former residential chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), said: “The numbers demonstrate continuing resilience as the overwhelming majority of buyers and sellers determine to press ahead with their moves and take advantage of the stamp duty concession which at the time they believed would end in March.”

WATCH: BORIS JOHNSON PROMISES BUDGET WILL BE FOCUSED ON A JOBS-LED RECOVERY

Boris Johnson promises Budget will be focused on a jobs-led recovery amid claims Brits set for tax rises
SCHOOLS WILL REOPEN ON MARCH 8 AS PLANNED SAYS DOWNING STREET – DESPITE NEW VARIANT

Downing Street has said schools in England will reopen on Monday as planned despite the discovery of a number of cases of a Brazilian variant of the coronavirus.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Schools will reopen on March 8 as we set out in the road map.”

The spokesman said that included South Gloucestershire where two cases had been found.

“We have deployed the extra surge testing in Gloucestershire to ensure that if there are any other cases in that local area we can identify then and ensure those people are isolated,” he said.
RISHI SUNAK TO ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM PUBLIC IMMEDIATELY AFTER WEDNESDAY’S BUDGET SPEECH

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will answer questions from the public and media on Wednesday afternoon following his Budget statement.

He said: “This Wednesday, in a Budget first, I will be taking questions from the public and the press straight after my statement.”
LABOUR WARNS CHANCELLOR AGAINST IMMEDIATELY RAISING TAXES IN BUDGET

Labour has warned Rishi Sunak against immediately raising taxes in his Budget on Wednesday, urging him instead to focus on securing the economic recovery.

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said now is “not the time” for tax rises, but signalled that she could support an increase in corporation tax in the future.

Her comments came amid a split in the party over the mooted plan, after reports suggested the Chancellor is considering raising corporation tax to as much as 25% from 19%.

Some Labour MPs have questioned whether the party should be backing the increase, arguing that it is a progressive tax.
DOWNING STREET DEFENDS UK BORDER CONTROLS FOLLOWING P1 VARIANT DISCOVERY

Downing Street has defended the UK’s coronavirus border controls following the discovery of a number of cases of a highly transmissible variant from Brazil.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We have had for a long time the requirement for people to isolate when they arrive in the UK. We now ensure that people have a negative test before they enter the UK.

“That is why we had those border policies to try and reduce the number of variants that enter the UK and stop the reimportation of cases. The important thing is that when people arrive they follow the border restrictions.”

The spokesman said that it was very unusual for people not to fill in their details correctly after taking a coronavirus test, as happened in the case of one of those with the Brazilian variant who is now being sought .

“In a very, very few rare cases individuals do not complete that information, which means that extra action has to be taken to track them down. That is what we are currently doing with regards to the Brazil variant,” the spokesman said.
BORIS SAYS BUDGET 2021 WILL BUILD ON EVERYTHING WE’VE DONE

Boris Johnson said he was confident the Budget would “build on everything we have done” to look after businesses and the public throughout the coronavirus crisis.

“I’m not going to anticipate what the Chancellor is going to say on Wednesday,” the Prime Minister told reporters.

“But I am absolutely confident that it will be a Budget that builds on everything we have done to look after the businesses and the people of this country throughout the pandemic.

“But that also paves the way for a strong, jobs-led recovery. That’s what our focus is going to be on.”

PM: NO REASON TO THINK VACCINES INEFFECTIVE AGAINST COVID VARIANTS

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday there was no reason to think that COVID-19 vaccines were ineffective against new variants of the coronavirus.

“We don’t have any reason at the present time to think that our vaccines are ineffective against these new variants of all types,” Johnson told broadcasters.

Health authorities said on Sunday that up to six cases had been detected in Britain of the “P.1” variant identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus, against which current vaccines appeared to be less effective.
PM STILL BELIEVES ROADMAP OUT OF LOCKDOWN WILL BE IRREVERSIBLE

Boris Johnson said he still expected the road map for easing England’s restrictions would be irreversible.

He told reporters at a school in Stoke-on-Trent: “What we are doing is embarking now on a journey, a one-way road map to freedom and it is designedly cautious in order to be irreversible.

“That is what we are hoping to achieve. Some people say we should go faster, some people say we should be more hesitant.

“I think we are going at the right pace, education is the priority, getting all schools open on March 8 is something that we have set our hearts on for a long time and I am confident we will be ready.”

Mr Johnson defended the testing regime for schools, insisting “people do understand how to use them and we are very confident that they will be of use in helping to keep the disease under control, keep it going down as we get schools back open”.
PM SAYS GOVERNMENT MOVED ‘AS FAST AS WE COULD’ WITH QUARANTINE HOTEL MEASURES

Boris Johnson said that the Government moved “as fast as we could” with introducing hotel quarantine measures, calling it a “very tough regime”.

Asked if the Government was too slow to implement quarantine hotel measures, the Prime Minister told reporters: “I don’t think so, we moved as fast as we could to get that going.

“It’s a very tough regime – you come here, you immediately get transported to a hotel where you are kept for 10 days, 11 days.

“You have to test on day two, you have to test on day eight, and it’s designed to stop the spread of new variants while we continue to roll out the vaccination programme.

“We don’t have any reason at the present time to think that our vaccines are ineffective against these new variants of all types.”
BORIS JOHNSON DEFENDS GOVERNMENT MEASURES TO PREVENT VARIANTS ENTERING BRITAIN

Boris Johnson has defended the Government’s measures to prevent new variants being imported into the country, despite the detection of cases of the Brazilian strain of coronavirus.

The Prime Minister told reporters: “We have got one of the toughest border regimes anywhere in the world for stopping people coming in to this country who may have variants of concern.”
WATCH: CHANCELLOR RISHI SUNAK WILL EXTEND VAT CUT ON PUBS

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will extend VAT cut on pubs
LABOUR DEMANDS STRICTER MEASURES AT BORDER IN LETTER TO PRITI PATEL

Labour’s Nick Thomas-Symonds said he has written to Home Secretary Priti Patel calling for stricter measures at the border, in light of the Brazilian variant being discovered in the UK.

The shadow home secretary said in the letter that “people in the UK are being put at risk” as he asked what measures were being taken to contact those who had been on the same flight as one of the cases.

“This is unforgivable incompetence from the UK Government,” Mr Thomas-Symonds said.

“Despite being warned time and time again, they have failed to act to protect our borders against emerging Covid variants and could put at risk the gains from the vaccine.

“People will be appalled to hear someone with the Brazilian variant cannot be identified, raising questions about how many others may have been missed by quarantine measures. There is no excuse for continuing to ignore Labour’s call for a comprehensive hotel quarantine system.”

WHAT ARE THE CORONAVIRUS VARIANTS AND WHERE HAVE THEY COME FROM?
TUC ISSUES WARNING OVER ‘WRECKING BALL’ TO ‘GREEN’ JOBS

Withdrawing hundreds of millions of pounds from the Government’s Green Homes Grant scheme will take “a wrecking ball” to jobs, the TUC is warning.

The union organisation said planned cuts to the scheme will mean a failure to deliver promised 100,000 new jobs.

Over half of those who have found employment through the scheme could be laid off, it was warned.

The TUC said its analysis revealed that 14,500 jobs have been created so far through the scheme, which provides funding for retrofitting homes to make them more environmentally-friendly.

The Government has been criticised for planning to cut funding from its flagship green initiative.
CHANCELLOR TO TAKE QUESTIONS STRAIGHT AFTER BUDGET STATEMENT FOR FIRST TIME EVER

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will answer questions from the public and media on Wednesday afternoon following his Budget statement.

He said: “This Wednesday, in a Budget first, I will be taking questions from the public and the press straight after my statement.”

The event will take place at 5pm on Wednesday.
BUDGET 2021: KEY POINTS EXPLAINED AHEAD OF WEDNESDAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT