Rishi Sunak says free ports will deliver ‘growth and prosperity'

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Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons that the 2021 Budget will deliver local areas across the UK. Conservative MP Tom Hunt praised the impact of the Chancellor’s Town deal for his Ipswitch constituents.   

Mr Hunt said: “I very much welcome the £25 million we are getting through the Towns deal and the creation of a free port means that 6000 of my constituents are employed directly or indirectly.

“Therefore does the Chancellor agree that both the Town deal money and the new free port together will be vital to the creation of new local skills in Ipswitch and will therefore be crucial in supporting local business at this critical time?”

Mr Sunak replied: “My honourable friend is absolutely right and I want to congratulate him on his long campaign and the importance of a Town deal for his local community and indeed a free port.

“I am delighted this budget could deliver both of those for his constituents.

“And I agree with him that it will deliver growth, jobs and prosperity to his local area.”

This follows Mr Sunak announcing the 2021 budget in the House of Commons last week.

The Chancellor announced that furlough support would be extended until September 2021.

Mr Sunak also outlined a number of other supportive financial measures. 

Martin Lewis grills Rishi Sunak over SEISS timetable

Last week, the Chancellor discussed some of his policies with Martin Lewis on ITV’s The Martin Lewis Money Show.

Mr Lewis grilled the Conservative MP on his decision to delay the ability to claim the fourth SEISS grant until late April.

Mr Lewis said: “I have got a tweet here from Fi: Why, why, why isn’t the fourth grant for SEISS available now? Late April will leave me homeless.

“You have delayed this and I would have expected it to be next week when people can apply, why is it the end of April that you’re going to start paying people?”

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Mr Sunak replied: “Well the simple reason is the grant covers the period for February to April so people will need to have a sense of their circumstances over that period.”

Mr Lewis interjected: “Hold on. In past grants you’ve done three-month periods and you’ve done it at the beginning, so that logic doesn’t follow.”

Mr Sunak said: “The difference this time is we’re making an improvement in access to the grant.

“We want to bring in all of those people who have filed tax returns for 19/20 and that means we need to have those come in, and I think you also were keen for us to extend or make some flexibility around the deadline which we did and that has meant that we need a little bit of extra time to process all of that to do the grants.

“I think that’s a reasonable approach to take.”

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