‘A massive increase to funding of the NHS’
Some readers mentioned the £350m a week promised on the side of the Vote Leave bus; others pointed to the emergency request for £4bn by Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief. Philip Hammond pledged an extra £2.8bn for the NHS in England this winter and the next two years, and £350m – that figure again – “immediately” to help trusts plan for this winter.
‘A huge war chest put aside to help deal with Brexit’
Hammond said £700m had been spent on Brexit preparations and he was setting aside a further £3bn over the next two years. Will that be enough?
‘A massive new programme of council house building’
It would have been ideological anathema for the Tories to intervene so directly in house building. Instead, 300,000 additional new homes a year are promised by the mid-2020s as part of a pledged £44bn of capital funding, loans and guarantees for the housing market. Stamp duty has been abolished for first-time buyers on purchases worth up to £300,000, and on the first £300,000 of purchases worth up to £500,000 in London.
‘Clamp down on tax avoidance’
The chancellor said there would be measures to raise £4.8bn by 2022-23, but the pledge was a far cry from tougher sanctions sought by our readers.
‘Address issues with universal credit’
Hammond announced a £1.5bn package to address concerns about the delivery of universal credit. Most eye-catchingly, Hammond said claimants would not have to wait seven days before they are entitled to money. Campaigners and politicians across the House will be happy to see their concerns about universal credit rollout acknowledged and confronted, but do the changes announced go far enough?
‘We need things that will give the under-35s a lift’
The chancellor pledged to extend the upper age limit for a young person’s railcard from 26 to 30, which may lead to fewer under-35s requiring a lift, at least.
