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(Photo: HM Treasury)
11.50 Hackney is braced for the budget – this page will be updated with all the latest news as it happens, with instant analysis. Check in for more.
12.02 Word is that the Chancellor will be making cuts to individual departments, rather than their programmes. We’ll be here to update you with the implications for Hackney’s services throughout the budget.
12.16 The Commons is currently hosting Prime Minister’s Questions, but the budget should follow at 12.30.
12.24 Almost time…but while you’re waiting, why not check out our new story about an anti-harassment campaign that’s been launched in Hackney?
12.36 And away we go! Darling is up and ‘the budget of recovery’ has begun.
12.41 Darling says that a package to invest in small and medium-sized businesses and jobs is at the heart of his budget. Keep visiting the site over the next few days for the latest business news from the borough, including an update on the Invest in Hackney scheme.
12.45 Darling wants everyone to be able to have a bank account – get ready for the cramped pavements of Kingsland High Street to get even more crowded as we all queue to get into Barclays.
12.52 The over-60s will have to work fewer hours to qualify for working tax credits, says Darling. That means more time to watch the football – and if today’s reports are to be believed, that could mean taking in a West Ham match at the Olympic Stadium.
12.55 This is the big one – first-time home buyers will not have to pay stamp duty on properties worth up to £250,000 either this year or in 2011, while stamp duty for properties worth more than £1m will be raised to 5%. People looking to get on the housing ladder in areas like Dalston that are enjoying sizeable housing developments will be cheered by that news, but the massive mansions in Stamford Hill just took a big hit.
13.00 The planned increase in fuel duty of 3p will now arrive in stages, going up 1p in April, and then again in October and January. Keep checking the website to see what happened when we pitted a motorist against a cyclist and public transport in a race across Hackney in true Top Gear style.
13.04 Bedlam in The Hackney Post’s office as it’s announced that cider prices will go up. Between this and the anti-social public drinking ban, it’s been a tough week for Hackney’s off-licenses. From Sunday, the duty on cider will be increased by 10% above inflation.
13.14 Darling wants to relocate a third of all civil servants, with an announcement that the Ministry of Justice is to save £41m by moving 1,000 staff out of the capital. The days of De Beauvoir’s latte-sipping policy wonks are numbered.
13.23 Big boost for small businesses, as mentioned at 12.41 – a new corporation, UK Finance for Growth, will oversee £4bn of support for businesses. The number of government contracts going to small and medium-sized firms will increase by 15%, and the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds will be lending £94bn, of which at least half will go to those small and medium-sized firms. But will the loans be at fair rates? Our reporter Marion Dakers examines the issue here.
13.27 Another crowd-pleaser, especially in London, as Darling announces £100m to go towards repairing local roads. Hackney motorists will be delighted, although the garages that repair their cars’ suspension systems might be a tad disappointed.
13.31 A few wider policies, namely investment funds for universities and green initiatives and a crackdown on tax avoidance, help to round out the budget. Families with one and two-year-olds will receive an extra £4 in child tax credits each week, and winter fuel payments will continue into next year following their introduction for this winter.
13.39 So, no deep cuts announced to public services – not today, at least. There will be sighs of relief at The Learning Trust, Hackney’s well-funded education body, and Hackney’s property developers will be rubbing their hands with glee…but more groans for cider-swillers with that bumper tax increase.
