Infrastructure
The Chancellor announced plans to accelerate new roads, rail and energy infrastructure with new legislation which will cut barriers and restrictions. This will make it quicker to plan and build new roads, speeding up the deployment of energy infrastructure such as offshore wind farms and streamlining environmental assessments and regulations.
Comment
According to the government, in 2021 it took 65% longer to get consent for major infrastructure projects than in 2012.
State benefits
Universal Credit claimants who earn less than the equivalent of 15 hours a week at the National Living Wage will be required to meet regularly with their work coach and take active steps to increase their earnings or face having their benefits reduced, broadly from January 2023. Jobseekers over the age of 50 will also be given extra time with Jobcentre work coaches, to help them return to the job market.
VAT-free shopping areas
The government will introduce a modern, digital, VAT-free shopping scheme with the aim of providing a boost to the high street and creating jobs in the retail and tourism sectors. The delivery will include modernising the scheme that currently operates in Northern Ireland and introducing a new digital scheme in Great Britain. The new VAT-free shopping scheme for non-UK visitors to Great Britain will enable them to obtain a VAT refund on goods bought in the high street, airports and other departure points and exported from the UK in their personal baggage.
Alcohol duties
Reforms to modernise alcohol duties will also be taken forward and the government has published a consultation response on these plans. The reforms will be implemented from 1 August 2023. The government is also freezing the alcohol duty rates from 1 February 2023 to provide additional support to the sector.
Further announcements
Over the next few weeks, the government will set out further details of plans to speed up digital infrastructure, reform business regulation, increase housing supply, improve our immigration system, make childcare cheaper, improve farming productivity and back the financial services sector.
Government announces plans to help cut energy bills for businesses
On 21 September 2022 the government announced a new scheme, the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which is designed to cut energy prices for non-domestic energy customers, such as businesses, charities and public sector organisations. The new scheme is in addition to the recently announced Energy Price Guarantee for households.
The scheme will apply to fixed contracts agreed on or after 1 April 2022 in addition to deemed, variable and flexible tariffs and contracts. Running for an initial six-month period, the scheme will apply to energy usage from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. According to the government, savings will first be seen in businesses’ October bills.
Businesses are not required to take action or apply for the scheme, support will be automatically applied to bills.
The government intends to conduct a review of the scheme in three months to assess:
• how effective it has been in giving support to vulnerable, non-domestic customers
• which groups of non-domestic customers remain vulnerable to energy price rises
• the extent to which the scheme could either be extended or further targeted.
Support after 31 March 2023 will be determined following the review.
Energy Price Guarantee plan caps household bills
Prime Minister Liz Truss announced the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) for households on 8 September 2022 which will apply from the start of October 2022. The EPG means that an average household will pay no more than £2,500 per year for each of the next two years. It comes in addition to the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme and will save the average household at least £1,000.
The EPG limits the price suppliers can charge customers for energy supplies. This takes account of temporarily removing green levies, worth around £150, from household bills. The guarantee will supersede the existing energy price cap.
Under the plan, those households who do not pay directly for mains gas and electricity, such as those living in park homes or on heat networks, will be no worse off and will receive support through a new fund.
The government estimates that the EPG will deliver substantial benefits to the economy, boosting growth and curbing inflation by four to five percentage points, which will in turn reduce the cost of servicing the national debt.
The government will provide energy suppliers with the difference between this new lower price and what energy retailers would charge their customers if this were not in place. Schemes previously funded by green levies will also continue to be funded by the government during this two-year period to ensure the UK’s investment in homegrown, secure renewable technologies continues.
New plan for patients aims to tackle NHS backlog
Health and Social Care Secretary Thérèse Coffey unveiled the government’s new ‘Our plan for patients’ on 22 September 2022, which aims to tackle NHS backlogs.
The centrepiece of the plan is the expectation that everyone who needs an appointment at a GP practice should get one within two weeks, with patients with the most urgent needs being seen the same day.
The plan also includes changing funding rules to recruit extra support staff so that GPs can focus on treating patients. The government says this will free up over one million appointments per year.
There will also be ‘more state-of-the art telephone’ systems to make it easier for patients to get through to their GP surgeries. In addition, more information will be available for patients, with appointments data published at a practice level for the first time ever.
Pharmacies will help ease pressures on GPs and free up time for appointments by managing and supplying more medicines without a GP prescription and taking referrals from emergency care for minor illnesses.