Budget 2021 announced by Chancellor

Measures were announced yesterday by Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in the Budget 2021. We have outlined a few of the measures for you in more detail below.

Furlough Scheme (CJRS)

• The furlough scheme will now be extended until the end of September 2021 to support livelihoods and help protect jobs.
• Employees on furlough will continue to receive 80% of their current salary for hours not worked.
• Employers will not have to contribute beyond NICs and pensions up until June.
• From July the government will introduce an employer contribution towards the cost of the unworked hours of employees. This will be 10% in July and 20% in August and September.

Self-employment Support

Support for the Self-employed will continue through to the end of September. This will be in the form of two cash grants through the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme. An additional fourth and fifth grant will be available to the self-employed. As the Government now has their tax returns, people who became self-employed newly in the 2019-2020 financial year will also now be eligible.

• A fourth grant covering the period February to April will be worth 80% of people’s average trading profits (the exact same terms as the last grant).
• The fifth and final grant from May will target support towards those most affected by the pandemic
• Those whose revenues have fallen by more than 30% will continue to claim the full 80% grant, those whose revenues have fallen by less than 30% will receive a 30% grant.

Apprentice Incentives

• To encourage apprenticeships, the government are doubling the apprentice incentive payments that they give to businesses to £3000 – for all new hires of any age
• A £7 million ‘flexi-job’ apprenticeship scheme in England to enable apprentices to work with a number of employers in one sector
• £126 million is set to go towards 40,000 traineeships for 16-24 year olds

Visas

• An unsponsored points-based visa to attract the best and most promising international talent in areas such as science, research, and tech
• New and improved visa processes for scale-ups and entrepreneurs

Plan for Jobs

Restart Grants

• £5 billion will be injected into restart grants
• A one-off cash grant of up to £18,000 for hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care, and gym businesses in England
• £6000 for non-essential retail businesses in England
• Providing all English local authorities with an additional £425 million of discretionary business grant funding

Recovery Loan Scheme

• This will replace the Bounce Back Loans and Business Interruption Loan Schemes
• Loans of between £25,000 and £10 million to help businesses of all sizes through the next stage of recovery

Future Fund Breakthrough

• A new co-investment scheme to back the high growth businesses
• Targeted at small, high growth businesses focused on research and development
• Private investors and the government will provide the later stage funding that they will need to grow
• It is estimated that a 1% growth in these firms could boost the UK economy by £38 billion

For further measures announced by the Chancellor in the Budget please see the government website for more detail.

If you have any concerns or would like to discuss anything further, please get in contact with the HPC team today.

T: 0844 800 5932

E: contact@highperformanceconsultancy.com

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