Shropshire Star comment: Spending spree to be welcomed

Chancellor Rishi Sunak was tasked with hastily re-writing his statement as the coronavirus crisis deepens, but it is clear that he takes a very different view than his predecessor Sajid Javid of the best way for the country to proceed outside the EU.

While Mr Javid was known to prefer a frugal approach to the country’s finances, Mr Sunak has elected to turn the spending taps on.

This is a move that will be widely welcomed.

For the past decade, successive Conservative government’s have attributed cutbacks to public spending on the actions of Gordon Brown’s Labour administration, which as Liam Byrne MP once pointed out in a rather unfortunate note, had pretty much emptied the country’s coffers.

But as austerity wreaked havoc to public services across the country, the reasoning behind the continuation of this policy began to wear thin.

After making it clear more funding will be pumped into the NHS, schools and policing, Boris Johnson’s administration has now instigated a spending spree not seen since the days when Norman Lamont called 11 Downing Street home.

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, we are seeing the “largest sustained fiscal loosening” since the pre-election budget in 1992, with real terms spending back to pre-austerity levels. On the downside, this will push up the government’s debt, but with the situation currently faced by the country, a spending spree is exactly what is needed.

Positive

Along with a £30bn programme to protect the UK from coronavirus, we will see huge investment in transport, housing and skills.

Combined with the Bank of England’s emergency interest rate cut, this represents a positive attempt to ease the crisis and hopefully ensure Britain can ride out the storm.

Although Jeremy Corbyn put on his usual show of displeasure in the Commons, this was a Budget featuring a set of measures that even Labour should be able to get behind.

A planned increase in spirits duty has been cancelled, while duties for cider and wine drinkers have been frozen, along with fuel duty. Billions in extra funding has been pledged for road improvements – including a pledge to fix 50 million potholes – along with bold broadband and housing projects.

The Budget also included cash for the remediation of brownfield sites, which is considered crucial for protecting green belt land in the Midlands. It is clear that calls from across the House for a huge programme of investment have been answered in spectacular style.

And while the announcements will not repair damage done in recent years to some areas of public spending, they will certainly set the country on a more positive footing.

As things stand, we do not know the full extent of the damage that coronavirus will cause the country. For many businesses, the Budget will be seen as offering a lifeline over an extremely testing and uncertain period.

The true test of the success of this Budget will be felt over the coming years. Only then will we truly know if the Government’s spending spree can allow the country to thrive.