Budget wins: Chancellor Jeremy Hunt
Last week’s Budget included 17 measures you may have missed – from spruced-up village halls to shorter passport waiting times:
1) Travelling abroad this Easter? Holidaymakers should wait just three weeks for their passports to be renewed as improvements should make ten-week waiting times a thing of the past.
2) Pensioners are set for another income increase as the Government again pledged to protect the triple lock. In 2024-25, the full annual basic state pension will be £3,700 higher in cash terms than in 2010, at £11,502 a year.
3) All NHS Trusts will have Electronic Patient Records by March 2026, ending their reliance on paper records and ensuring patients can easily access records across all NHS systems.
4) D-Day veterans will be honoured at an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the landings, which the Government has promised to fund.
5) Although we packed away the bunting and polished off the last of the cucumber sandwiches long ago, the Queen’s legacy lives on through an extra £5 million for the Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund, to help village halls across England remain at the heart of their communities.
6) Common conditions may soon be treated without the need for a GP appointment or prescription as the Government unveils Pharmacy First, a service to give patients treatment for seven common conditions straight from a pharmacy.
7) The Government will fund projects to develop emerging talent in the British film industry. It will support the National Film and Television School’s plan for an expansion to its teaching space so it can offer up to 200 more apprenticeship places a year, new cutting-edge courses including the use of artificial intelligence, and improved facilities for disabled students.
8) £16 million will be invested in prison workshops to boost employability and rehabilitate inmates.
9) Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon and Laurence Olivier are just a few of the famous actors to have tread the boards at the National Theatre. Now those boards are set to be replaced as the Government pledged £26.4 million to renovate the theatre’s stage and infrastructure.
10) Is your child or grandchild off to school this September? Additional funding for schools will represent a cash increase in average funding per pupil to £7,690 in 2024-25.
11) All NHS staff will be given digital passports and access to a new staff app to reduce the bureaucracy in moving between different parts of the NHS, and eliminate the need to redo training courses, meaning more time can be spent on patient care.
12) Get ready for RoboCop! The Government is committing £230 million to pilot schemes of policing technology, such as deploying drones as first responders, facial recognition and automating the triage of 101 calls to enable officers to spend more time on the frontline.
13) Ministers are also piloting the use of artificial intelligence to help planning authorities streamline their processes, so plans take 30 months rather than the seven-year average.
14) A cyber criminal crackdown is on the way as the Government pledged £34 million to expand the Public Sector Fraud Authority by using artificial intelligence to combat fraud across the public sector. This should make it easier to spot, stop and catch fraudsters, saving £100 million for the public purse.
15) Do you have an aspiring astronaut in the family? The Government has pledged £10 million to SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands, to support orbital launch in 2024.
16) Known as the home of big banks, Canary Wharf could also be called home by hundreds of households, as the Government pledged to deliver up to 750 homes in the East London area.
17) An extra 24,000 nursing and midwifery training places will be available by 2031 as the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan invests in the largest ever expansion in recruitment and training of NHS staff.
