| Chancellor Rishi Sunak has quickly gained a reputation for underpromising and overdelivering and today's ‘mini Budget’ was no different.
The most eye-catching was a temporary stamp duty “holiday” on the first 500,000 of any property purchase.
This will shave 15,000 off the cost of buying a 500,000 home and 2,460 from the cost of the average sale price of 248,000. The holiday will apply to all buyers who would have paid the charge in England and Northern Ireland and make almost 90pc of English property transactions tax-free.
Homeowners and landlords will also be able to apply for vouchers to make energy-efficient improvements to their properties and are eligible for up to 5,000 per household, potentially saving them thousands of pounds a year on their bills.
Young people were also given good news. Mr Sunak said he would spend 2bn on getting 16 to 24-year-olds into work by directly paying their wages for six months. The scheme will help out the 500,000 young people currently claiming Universal Credit. They’ll be paid at least the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours per week. It will start in autumn and run for six months with the chance of an extension.
Other plans to protect jobs included rewarding businesses that bring back employees from furlough. They will be paid a 1,000 bonus for every employee they keep on until January.
Brits will literally be dining out on the announcements, as they included a 50pc discount on food at restaurants and cafes. For the whole of August, everyone will get an “eat out to help out” discount, meaning the cost of meals at any participating restaurant from Monday to Wednesday will be cut by up to 10 per head. VAT on holiday accommodation, tourist attractions and meals out will also be slashed.
Together it is an enormous package, costing billions of pounds on top of the billions already been spent on furlough and self-employed and business grants. How will we pay for it? We'll have to wait until the autumn Budget to find out.
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