Over $43 Billion in New U.K. Spending: Sunak’s Budget Tally

(Bloomberg) --

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has trailed more than 31 billion pounds ($43 billion) of announcements ahead of his budget on Wednesday, ranging from spending on health care to education. 

Here is a rundown of the main pledges:

Pay

The U.K. will increase its national minimum wage to 9.50 pounds an hour ($13.09), up 6.6% for people aged 23 and over. In another boost for millions of workers, the Treasury will end the public sector pay freeze from next April; the cost of that will come to light next year after talks with pay review bodies.

Health

The Treasury will inject an extra 5.9 billion pounds into the National Health Service to address a patient backlog and modernize digital technology. Funding for health-related research and development will increase by 5 billion pounds over the next three years, targeting health threats such as cancer and obesity.

Transport

Public transport across the U.K. will get another 6.9 billion pounds on budget day, though 5.4 billion pounds of this has already been announced -- so only 1.5 billion pounds is new money.

Education

Children with special educational needs will receive a 2.6 billion-pound funding boost over the next three years. Another 3 billion pounds will be spent on improving skills among those aged 16 and over and 560 million pounds on improving adult numeracy.

Housing

Almost 2 billion pounds will be spent to turn brown-field land into hundreds of thousands of new homes in England.

Investment

The Treasury will create a 1.4 billion-pound “Global Britain Investment Fund,” which will give grants to encourage inward investment in the U.K. That includes 354 million pounds for life sciences and more than 800 million pounds for electric vehicle production and supply chains. There will also be an extra 312 million pounds for the British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans program, and 150 million pounds of funding for regional “angel investors.”

Culture, Sport

Local museums, galleries and cultural hotspots will get 850 million pounds and there’s another 700 million pounds for local sports clubs.

Crime, Security

The Treasury will give 435 million pounds of funding to tackle crime, including improving street lighting and CCTV. Another 703 million pounds will be spent on improving border security, including on coastal patrol ships.

Families and Veterans

Families will get an extra 500 million pounds, including 80 million pounds to fund a network of “hubs” to help young families. Support for veterans is set for another 5 million pounds.

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