Chancellor Rishi Sunak will deliver his Autumn Budget next week, setting out spending commitments for Government departments for the next three years.
The Budget comes with the Government facing huge levels of debt after supporting businesses and invidual jobs through the coronavirus pandemic.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is thought to want to make some high-profile spending commitments, particularly in ‘Red Wall’ areas where voters were persuaded to back the Conservatives with their ‘levelling up’ agenda.
But Mr Sunak is known to be more cautious and wants to reduce spending to restore the health of public finances.
But what do people and organisations in the North East want from the Budget?
The region’s leading business group, the North East England Chamber of Commerc, has called on the Chancellor to set a course for a ‘fairer, more balanced economy’ and add substance to the levelling-up agenda in the Wednesday Budget.
The Chamber is also one of many businesses calling for a review of the current business rates system, which has been blamed by many for the decline on the UK’s high streets.
Elsewhere, the North East Child Poverty Commission has called on the Chancellor to commit to use the Budget to make a plan to end child poverty, including reversing the Universal Credit cut, increasing child benefit and expanding eligibility for free school meals.
And Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, has written to the Chancellor calling for the planned beer duty rise to be cancelled. His letter has been signed by 100 Conservative MPs, including Bishop Auckland’s Dehenna Davidson, Paul Howell of Sedgefield and Teesside MPs Matt Vickers and Jill Mortimer.
