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

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Chancellor Rishi Sunak has delivered his first Budget in the House of Commons, announcing the government's tax and spending plans for the year ahead.

Here is a summary of the main points.

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Coronavirus and public services

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  • £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
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Personal taxation, wages and pensions

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  • 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
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Alcohol, tobacco and fuel

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  • 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
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Business, digital and science

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  • 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
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Environment and energy

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  • 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
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Transport, infrastructure and housing

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  • 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
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The state of the economy and public finances

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  • Economy predicted to grow by 1.1% this year, revised down from 1.4% a year ago
  • The figure, which does not take into account the impact of coronavirus, would be the slowest growth since 2009
  • Growth predicted to rebound to 1.8% in 2021-22, 1.5% in 2022-23 and 1.3% in 2023-24
  • Inflation forecast of 1.4% this year, increasing to 1.8% in 2021-2022
  • Government to borrow £14.6bn more this year than previously forecast, equivalent to 2.1% of GDP
  • Total additional borrowing of £96.6bn forecast by 2023-2024 to pay for spending commitments
  • Debt as a percentage of GDP forecast to be lower at end of current Parliament than now
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Nations and regions

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  • An extra £640m for Scotland, £360m for Wales, and £210m for Northern Ireland.
  • Treasury's Green Book rules to be reviewed to factor regional prosperity into spending decisions
  • Treasury to open new offices in Wales and Scotland and civil service hub in the North of England, employing 750 staff
  • New £1.8bn devolution deal for West Yorkshire, with elected mayor for region
  • Universities outside the south east of England to get lion's share of extra £400m R&D funding
  • £800m for two carbon capture and storage clusters, creating 6,000 new jobs in Teesside, Humberside, Merseyside and Scotland