The EZHR Weekly Update 17th March 2023
After his mini budget after a mini fiscal event, Jeremy Hunt is back and the focus is on trying to grab the green shoots of hope after what has been a turbulent 12 months and avoid a recession this year. He predicted that the economy is forecast to grow by 1.8% in 2024 and 2.5% in 2025, and this could only be achieved by getting people back into the market.
There’s quite a lot to go through, so lets go…
Returnerships
A new apprenticeship scheme aimed at the 50s is being developed, though the details have not been released. Returnships are focused on encouraging the over 50s to return to work or the possibility of retaining. The programme seems likely to focus on the person's experiences with shorter courses.
Enhanced childcare
The current childcare support scheme will be extended to parents of 2-year-olds, who will get 15 hours of free childcare per week from April 2024. While in September 2024 parents of children from 9 months of age will get 15 hours free childcare per week. Then in September 2025, all eligible under-5s will get 30 hours free childcare per week.
The hope and ambition of this is that it will enable more parents to return to the workplace after having a child given the increasing cost of childcare. The ambitious plan would hopefully mean that there is more skill available in the market and drive down some of the current drivers of inflation.
Support for those with chronic issues
A fund of £400m will be available to assist those back into work who have left employment due to mental health or a musculoskeletal issue. From the information we have, it appears that the onus will sit on employers to implement reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process and make sure their inclusion policies and practices are relevant and up to date.
Investment Zones
The Chancellor confirmed what had already been reported that 12 new Investment Zones will be established with better business rates for organisations establishing themselves there. The areas being targeted are West Midlands, South and West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, the North East, East Midlands, Teesside and Liverpool. There will be at least one in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Pensions
In a change of tact from recent years it was confirmed they intend to increase the pensions annual tax-free allowance from £40,000 to £60,000 and he will abolish the Lifetime Allowance which had previously been set at £1.07 million.
Taxation
The previous Fiscal Event commitment will of businesses which make a profit of more than £250,000 will pay 25% corporate tax on their profits from April will stay, and this will move up from up from 19%.
The Annual Investment Allowance for smaller companies will increase to £1 million which means that 99% of them can deduct the full value of all their investment from that year’s taxable profit.
In addition, an enhanced credit for small research companies will mean that £27 is claimable for every £100 spent on research provided they spend 40% or more of their total expenditure on R&D.
Artificial Intelligence
The chancellor has announced an annual £1m prize for the most ground-breaking research into artificial intelligence. This will be run for the next ten years
This will be called the Manchester Prize in honour of Baby, the world's first stored-program computer, built at the University of Manchester in 1948.
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