Chancellor didn’t ‘offer a single word about the future of public transport’

Marios Alexandrou, the interim president of the TSSA said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was “unable to offer a single word about the future of public transport”.

“This should come as no surprise because in recent days we’ve seen the absence of leadership on HS2 with Tory delays to this vital project – a mark of outright failure to level up the North.

“What’s needed is a Government that realises that there can be no long-term sustainable growth for our regional and national economies without proper investment in HS2 and our railways more widely as the greenest means of mass transport.”

‘No British equivalent of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act’

Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, whose members were on strike today, said today’s budget was a “missed opportunity”.

“There was no plan to bring an end to the real-terms pay cuts endured by Prospect members, who walked out today in their biggest numbers in a decade.

“There was no British equivalent of President Biden’s transformative Inflation Reduction Act to provide much-needed good, green jobs across the UK. There was no reassurance on the future of the Type-32 programme that is critical to securing the future of British shipbuilding.”

Full story: Free 30 hours of childcare expanded

One of the big announcements of the Budget was a massive expansion in the provision of free childcare for the under-fives.

Jeremy Hunt unveiled the measure in a bid to encourage more parents back to work – allowing some parents of children as young as nine months to claim 30 hours of free childcare a week. The current policy applies to three and four year olds.

The new policy, which will be introduced in stages until September 2025, will be worth up to £6,500 a year for working families, he said.

To read our full story on this and how it would work, visit here.

Labour’s response to Budget: ‘A sticking plaster for a country needing major surgery’

Sir Keir Starmer branded the Budget a “sticking plaster” for a country that needs “major surgery”.

The Labour leader accused Jeremy Hunt of having “no ambition” to improve the lives of working people as the Chancellor laid out his plan on Wednesday.

The proposals leave Britain “stuck in the waiting room… falling behind our competitors, the sick man of Europe once again”, Sir Keir said.

He added: “This was a day for ambition, for bringing us together with purpose and intent, for unlocking the pride that is in every community, matching their belief in the possibilities of the future. But after today, we know the Tory cupboard is bare.”

Read our full story on Labour’s response to the Budget here.

Living standards still expected to fall by largest amount since records began

Living standards are still expected to fall by the largest amount since records began – although the decline is not as bad as had been forecast in November.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said real household disposable income per person is expected to fall by a cumulative 5.7 per cent over the two financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

“While this is 1.4 percentage points less than forecast in November, it would still be the largest two-year fall since records began in 1956-57,” the OBR said.

This is mainly driven by the rise in energy and goods which the UK imports outstripping wage growth, it said.

Budget watchdog: Plans lower inflation but debt falls ‘only by narrowest of margins’

The Office for Budget Responsibility said Jeremy Hunt had committed money to “providing more support with energy bills and business investment in the near term, while boosting labour supply in the medium term”.

“This lowers inflation this year and, more significantly, sustainably raises employment and output in the medium term.

“But it leaves debt falling by only the narrowest of margins in five years’ time.”

It says that while the short-term economic outlook has brightened, the economy is still battling with long-term structural issues.

“[The Budget] reverses only part of the costs of the energy crisis, which are being felt on top of larger costs from the pandemic,” it says.

“And persistent supply-side challenges continue to weigh on future growth prospects.”

Starmer: Tory Budget has a ‘poverty of ambition’

Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer has accused the Chancellor of not meeting the scale of the country’s problems in the Budget – a “poverty of ambition”.

He told the Commons: “I was waiting for him to match Labour’s ambition, I was waiting for him to match our plan to train more doctors and nurses to tackle the capacity crisis, a policy he publicly praised just fifteen days before he became Chancellor.

“And yet it never came… If there was ever a symbol of the poverty of ambition, that was it, because a country getting sicker is a country getting poorer.

“And a country getting poorer is a country getting sicker. Health and wealth must go together. Britain can’t afford to be the sick man of Europe – Britain can’t afford the Tories.”

Free childcare boost ‘big extension to welfare state’ – IFS

One of the Budget’s big offers – a big expansion of free childcare to the under-fives – has been welcomed by a leading thinktank.

The director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) Paul Johnson said: “Extending free childcare to all children over 9 months really is a big extension of the welfare state.

“(Probably) about doubles childcare spending. We’ve been edging in this direction for a good 20 years. This is a new leg of the welfare state finally nearing its end point.”

Starmer: Tory Budget ‘leaves us sick man of Europe again’

Labour is now responding to the Budget – with party leader Keir Starmer accusing Hunt of being “out of touch”.

He tells the Commons: “The more he [Hunt] pretends everything is fine, the more he shows just how out of touch they are.

“After thirteen years of a Conservative government, our economy needed major surgery. But like millions across our country, this Budget leaves us stuck in the waiting room with only a sticking plaster to hand.

“A country set on a path of managed decline, falling behind our competitors, the sick man of Europe once again.”