Budget Statement

Lord St John of Bletso Excerpts

Friday 12th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord St John of Bletso (CB)]

My Lords, I join in congratulating the three outstanding maiden speakers and look forward to the next two maiden speeches.

While I support much of this Budget and applaud the Chancellor for the measures that he has taken to ease the pain of lockdown on individuals and businesses both large and small, I have reservations about the furlough scheme being extended to September. I had hoped that more would be mentioned on getting people back to work; we should be supporting jobs for the future rather than jobs in the past. It is obvious that many who have benefited from furlough will become unemployed and will have to start looking for work in a radically changed working world. The focus should be on more subsidised training for jobs in growth sectors, leading to improved productivity and economic growth.

I would also like to have seen more measures to support the green economy, promoting an energy revolution and more job creation. We have the energy White Paper on net-zero carbon emissions; more could be done to support this. While it is inevitable that there will need to be some tax rises, increasing corporation tax to 25% in 2023 has shattered the dream of the United Kingdom becoming the Singapore of Europe. There will naturally be a strong economic bounceback in Q3 and Q4 this year, but in the medium term, unless this can be followed by greater growth, the threat of inflation runs the risk of enduring stagflation.