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Dear Constituent,
The Chancellor has today set out further measures to support families, jobs and help our economy bounce back from Covid-19. So, below I’ve summarised today’s announcements and key measures.
Also below are details of my upcoming virtual business roundtable and residents’ meetings, which will take place next week via Zoom. Please get in touch for the details if you would like to join either of these meetings.
Chancellor’s Summer Statement:
The Chancellor today delivered a budget statement focused on supporting people to find the jobs that are out there, creating new jobs through investing in our infrastructure and housing, and finally protecting jobs by revitalising the hard-hit sectors upon which many jobs depend.
The first phase of our plan was about protection. It is now time to focus on jobs, and there will come a third phase – which is the moment for rebuilding. The Government will then produce a Budget and a Spending Review in the autumn. I welcome today’s statement as a key way to boost our economy and growth, encourage spending and protect jobs.
The key measures announced today include:
- Jobs Retention Bonus Scheme: To encourage employers to keep their employees on, we are introducing the Jobs Retention Bonus Scheme, a one-off payment of £1,000 to the business for every employee who was furloughed previously and who is successfully kept on continuously until January.
- Temporarily cutting VAT for the tourism and hospitality sectors, giving a much-needed boost to some of the industries hardest hit by coronavirus. From 15 July 2020, we will cut the rate of VAT applied across the UK to hospitality, accommodation and attractions from 20 per cent to 5 per cent until 12 January 2021. This could support almost 2 million businesses and protect 2.5 million jobs.
- Launching a new Eat Out to Help Out scheme – something that has never been done in this country ever before – giving people up to 50 per cent off meals out, encouraging them back into restaurants, cafes and pubs. Anyone who eats at a participating business, Monday to Wednesday for the month of August, can receive up to 50 per cent off food and non-alcoholic drinks, up to a value of £10 per person. Businesses can claim the money back from the government weekly, receiving funds within 5 working days. Guidance for businesses will be published next week.
- Temporarily scrapping stamp duty on all homes under £500,000 to catalyse the housing market and boost confidence – helping to drive growth and create jobs. From 9 July 2020 until 31 March 2021, we are increasing the threshold at which stamp duty applies from £125,000 to £500,000. This will mean, from tomorrow, 90 per cent of people getting on or moving up the property ladder will pay no stamp duty at all – equating to an average saving of £4,500.
- Upgrading the energy efficiency of homes across England through a new Green Homes Grant, saving people hundreds of pounds on their energy bills, while helping to meet our goal of Net Zero by 2050. We will provide £2 billion to allow people to apply for a voucher, to fund at least two-thirds of the cost of upgrading the energy performance of their homes – up to a maximum of £5,000. Low-income households will be eligible for up to 100 per cent of government funding, up to £10,000. This measure will also reduce energy bills by up to £300 a year and help to save carbon – equivalent to a flight from London to New York.
- Launching a pilot to decarbonise social housing, reducing energy bills by an average of £200 for some of the poorest households in society. We are providing £50 million to pilot new approaches for retrofitting social housing at scale – meaning warmer and more energy efficient homes.
- Providing £1 billion to improve the energy efficiency of public sector buildings, helping to deliver on our ambitious climate change targets. The scheme will offer grants to public sector bodies including schools and hospitals to fund both energy efficiency and low-carbon heat measures.
- Creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs for young people through a new £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, to give young people the best possible chance of getting a job. The scheme will directly pay businesses to create new, decent and high-quality jobs for any 16-24 year old at risk of long-term unemployment. Funding available for each job will cover 100 per cent of the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, for six months in total, plus an admin fee – for a grant of around £6,500 per placement. There will be no cap on the number of places available, and our £2 billion will initially fund hundreds of thousands of new placements.
- Paying businesses £1,000 to take on Trainees, with triple the number of places there are now, to get young people ready for work. We will provide £111 million to triple the scale of Traineeships, which consist of work experience placements, training and work preparation for 16-24 year olds. We will also increase the eligibility of Traineeships to include young people qualified up to Level 3 (advanced – equivalent to 2 good A Level passes), up from Level 2 (intermediate – equivalent to achieving 5 GCSEs at 9-4) currently.
- Providing £2,000 to employers for each new apprentice they hire under the age of 25, helping more people into the workplace while developing key skills. In recognition of the value apprentices of any age can bring to our economic recovery, we will provide £2,000 to any employer in England who takes on an apprentice aged under 25, and £1,500 for any apprentice aged over 25.
You can read the Chancellor’s Statement in full here and the Plan for Jobs in full here.
Virtual Business Roundtable – 2pm, Tuesday 14th July 2020:
Thank you to all those businesses who have been in touch with me over the last few months, and who’ve joined my virtual business roundtables to date.
Following the recent and upcoming changes to the furlough scheme, and the Chancellor’s Summer Statement today, I’m holding another ‘virtual business roundtable’ meeting at 2pm on Tuesday 14th July 2020. The meeting will be held via video conference on zoom. I’m eager to hear businesses’ feedback on the schemes and support available and discuss any issues or concerns so that I can feed these back into the Treasury and the Government.
If you’re a local business who would like to attend this meeting, please let me know by replying to this email and I will send you the details to join.
Invitation to Zoom residents’ meeting – 7pm, Thursday 16th July 2020:
Thank you to everyone who has joined my virtual residents’ meetings so far. My next residents’ meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday 16th July 2020, again via Zoom.
If you’re a constituent and would like to attend, please reply to this email or email nigel.mills.mp@parliament.uk and I’ll send you the link to join the meeting.
As always, if you have a personal or specific issue you would like to raise with me, or for a virtual surgery appointment, do also continue to contact me by replying to this email or by ringing 01773 744341.
Street Watch:
As always, if there are any street repairs in your area, such as potholes, pavement repairs or broken street lights, you can report these issues and concerns to me quickly and easily here so I can ask for the repairs to be investigated and addressed.
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Get in Touch!
As always, you can contact me by hitting the ‘reply’ button on this email, or you can ring my office on 01773 744341.
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Yours sincerely,
Promoted by Nigel Mills MP of Unicorn House, Wellington Street, Ripley, Derbyshire, DE5 3EH.
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