Summary of Budget 2020: Key points at-a-glance

Here is a summary of the main points.

Coronavirus and public services

£5bn emergency response fund to support the NHS and other public services in England
All those advised to self-isolate will be entitled to statutory sick pay, even if they have not presented with symptoms
Self-employed workers who are not eligible will be able to claim contributory Employment Support Allowance
The ESA benefit will be available from day one, not after a week as now
£500m hardship fund for councils in England to help the most vulnerable in their areas
Firms with fewer than 250 staff will be refunded for sick pay payments for two weeks
Small firms will be able to access “business interruption” loans of up to £1.2m
Business rates in England will be abolished for firms in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors with a rateable value below £51,000
£6bn in extra NHS funding over five years to pay for staff recruitment and start of hospital upgrades

The tax threshold for National Insurance Contributions will rise from £8,632 to £9,500
The move, first announced in November, will take 500,000 employees out of the tax altogether
Those earning more than £9,500 will be, on average, £85 a year better off
5% VAT on women’s sanitary products, known as the tampon tax, to be scrapped
No other new announcements on income tax, national insurance or VAT
Tax paid on the pensions of high earners, including NHS consultants, to be recalculated to address staffing issues

Fuel duty to be frozen for the 10th consecutive year
Duties on spirits, beer, cider and wine to be frozen
Tobacco taxes will continue to rise by 2% above the rate of retail price inflation
This will add 27 pence to a pack of 20 cigarettes and 14 pence to a packet of cigars
Business rate discounts for pubs to rise from £1,000 to £5,000 this year

System of High Street business rates to be reviewed later this year
Firms eligible for small business rates relief will get £3,000 cash grant
Entrepreneurs’ Relief will be retained, but lifetime allowance will be reduced from £10m to £1m
£5bn to be spent on getting gigabit-capable broadband into the hardest-to-reach places
Science Institute in Weybridge, Surrey to get a £1.4bn funding boost
An extra £900m for research into nuclear fusion, space and electric vehicles
VAT on digital publications, including newspapers, e-books and academic journals to be scrapped from December

Plastic packaging tax to come into force from April 2022
Manufacturers and importers whose products have less than 30% recyclable material will be charged £200 per tonne
Subsidies for fuel used in off-road vehicles – known as red diesel – will be scrapped “for most sectors” in two years’ time
Red diesel subsidies will remain for farmers and rail operators
£120m in emergency relief for English communities affected by this winter’s flooding and £200m for flood resilience
Total investment in flood defences in England to be doubled to £5.2bn over next five years
£640m “nature for climate fund” to protect natural habitats in England, including 30,000 hectares of new trees

More than £600bn is set to be spent on roads, rail, broadband and housing by the middle of 2025
There will be £27bn for motorways and other arterial roads, including new tunnel for the A303 near Stonehenge
£2.5bn will be available to fix potholes and resurface roads in England over five years
Further education colleges will get £1.5bn to upgrade their buildings
£650m package to tackle homelessness, providing an extra 6,000 places for rough sleepers
Stamp duty surcharge for foreign buyers of properties in England and Northern Ireland to be levied at 2% from April 2021
New £1bn fund to remove all unsafe combustible cladding from all public and private housing higher than 18 metres