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Big Budget spending is fine – but it means little without a post-Brexit EU trade deal

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Wednesday 11 March 2020 12:37 GMT
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Budget 2020: Threshold at which you start to pay National Insurance to be increased from £8,632 to £9,500

I know it’s easy to offer growth if your party has left everyone but the wealthy starved of resources for over a decade but this was the bling Budget of all time. Rishi Sunak even used that word.

Our shiny new chancellor seemed to have amnesia about which party steadily worked to denude Britain of affordable housing since the days of Thatcher.

By the time Mr Sunak mentioned £27bn of tarmac for new roads.... It was all so exciting and ridiculous.

Even the people who pretend Brexit is “done” know we know nothing about what Britain can or cannot afford until we know what the deal is or is not going to be.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

So, the banks are deferring mortgage payments during coronavirus crisis. How very nice of them, it’s as if they owe us or anything. But what about those affected by the floods? Why pay a mortgage when your house is under water, with no insurance cover?

Though Boris says we should take it on the chin, he does have a cheek. The Budget should be concentrating on the population and its wellbeing.

Two crises in a short space of time, we need strong government!

Don’t hold your breath.

Gary Martin

London

Civil war

I read the report from John Rentoul and the perceptions gained from the select committee that basically it was business as usual. Does this mean that the alleged hostile working environment will continue between ministers and the civil service?

This government is undoubtedly in the “eye of the storm” with so much affecting our country and this year so far has an almost surreal feel to it. The anxiety and uncertainty to do with the coronavirus will probably get worse before it gets better.

Obviously there should be a robust government response and civil servants need to be proactive as well, but in these more enlightened times when the population is certainly far more aware of mental health issues, a bullying culture should not be condoned in any way shape or form and routed out wherever it raises its divisive and self-defeating head.

Judith Daniels

Cobholm

Coronavirus response

Without wishing to appear overly sceptical about the government’s “concerned” response to the covid-19 outbreak, I can only deduce that if the 1 to 2 per cent expected mortality rate is mainly in the over 60 years old age group – Boris, Matt and their appointed advisers are unduly worried that it will occur amongst their voting demographic.

Alistair Vincent

Barnet

New Skills

In the face of uncertainty and with a heightened risk of economic downturn, we need to focus on improving productivity and building business resilience. Businesses must have the right processes and people in place to ensure continuity and, perhaps most importantly, future growth.

This is a great challenge – and to thrive, we need to invest in both digital transformation and our talent pool. Having a well-trained, tech-savvy workforce able to leverage new and emerging technologies will make or break our success.

Yet our recent survey of UK workers revealed that 37 per cent of UK workers don’t currently feel that they need to learn new skills despite a growing demand for digital and soft skills in the job market. In order to address our country’s skills gap and deteriorating productivity, lifelong learning, improving skills and continuous professional development need to play a bigger part in the government agenda.

Andrew Harding

Chief Executive – Management Accounting, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Economic plight

Some days I wonder about my subscription to the Independent, despite you remaining the best choice for reliable news, analysis and comment. It’s not your fault the news is so unremittingly bad!

However, Ben Chu’s article (A decade of taxation and public spending) brings together a comprehensive collection of key data charting our economic plight (sorry, “situation”). Could this data be published every quarter?

Perhaps you could add in some housing and income data to illustrate the changes in personal economic wellbeing?

Chris Dixon

Address supplied

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