Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Autumn budget 2021 is full of promises and hope with a booster dose of what seems like a humble bunch of zeroes. The budget being presented on Wednesday, 27 October by the Chancellor, the budget boasts of the following highlights:
£7 billion for areas outside of London to “level up” transport
£5 billion for health-related research and development, including towards genome sequencing and tackling health inequalities
£3 billion to drive a “skills revolution”
£1.4 billion fund to funnel money into key innovative sectors and a new talent network to woo foreign talent into UK industries
£850 million to “breathe life” back into cultural hotspots
£700 million for a new fleet of patrol boats for Britain’s borders
£700 million to improve sports and youth clubs
£560 million to provide personalised maths coaching
£500 million towards support for families and children, including new family hubs
£435 million for crime prevention and the Crown Prosecution Service, part of which aims to improve the response to rape and sexual assault cases
£5 million for cutting-edge treatments for veterans
Public sector pay pause lifted
More than 5 million public sector workers including nurses, teachers and members of the armed forces are set to receive pay raises in the Chancellor’s Budget and Spending Review; Skills revolution set to continue with £3 billion boost to be unveiled at budget. Life-changing opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people to get the skills they want. Investment in 16 to 19-year-olds doubled and the number of skills boot camps quadrupled. Prime Minister’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee this new injection of money will quadruple the number of places on skills boot camps, fund additional classroom hours for up to 100,000 16 to 19-year-olds studying T levels and create 24,000 traineeships.
The new investment includes £1.6 billion for 16-19 education to boost college funding and provide additional classroom hours for up to 100,000 young people taking T levels so more 16 to 19-year-olds get qualifications in high skilled industries that will fuel future growth.
A total of £830 million will be allocated to revitalising existing colleges in England, and further funding will secure the top of the range equipment and facilities to ensure that young people taking T Levels have the industry-ready skills they need.
The National Skills Fund will be boosted with a total investment of £550 million to make sure adults, at any age, can upskill to reach their potential, transforming lives. Apprenticeship funding will increase by £170 million to a record high of £2.7 billion in 2024-25 alongside new improvements to support more small businesses to hire new apprentices and to show employers seeing just how much an apprentice would benefit their business.
Money provided for up to 8,000 state-of-the-art sports pitches
Chancellor is expected to confirm £700 million to improve sports and youth clubs. Up to 8,000 state-of-the-art sports pitches to be built or improved across the UK to ensure every young person has a chance to take up the sport.
£5 million for cutting-edge treatments for injured veterans will go under Health Innovation Fund. Over £700 million to secure new fleet of coastal patrol ships and protection for UK borders. £435 million will be used to tackle crime and help victims. A £1.4 billion Global Britain Investment Fund will support investment into the UK economy.
500,000 adults to ace maths with ‘Multiply’
New £560 million Multiply programme to be launched providing personalised maths coaching for up to half a million people across the UK.
Wage boost for millions of low-paid workers
The UK’s lowest-paid workers will receive a pay rise next year as the National Living Wage increases from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour – an extra £1000 a year for a full-time worker. From 1 April, young people and apprentices will also see their wages boosted as the National Minimum Wage for people aged 21-22 goes up to £9.18 an hour and Apprentice Rate increases to £4.81 an hour.
£6 billion investment will tackle NHS waiting lists and improve digital tech. At least 100 community diagnostic centres to help clear most backlogs of people waiting for clinical tests such as MRIs, ultrasounds, and CT scans. As part of this, efficiency and security in the frontline NHS to be improved by £2.1 billion investment to modernise digital technology
£2.6 billion boost will tackle education for children with special needs & disabilities
A historic £2.6 billion capital investment over the next three years will create more than 30,000 new high-quality special school places.
