Budget Live: Chancellor vows action to ease virus impact - BBC News
Rishi Sunak unveils a huge stimulus programme to support the economy through coronavirus.
'One of the most consequential Budgets in a generation'

There were two Budgets here. And both were huge. The first, the priority, was the immediate coronavirus challenge and the threat of a recession, identified by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The numbers were substantial. A £30bn plan that would, for the first time, see the state fund statutory sick pay for small and medium sized enterprises, some cash handouts, and a one-year suspension of business rates. And boost health spending. The measures complemented the emergency rate cut from the Bank of England, and provide a powerful bridge built on the assumption that the outbreak will be temporary. But the government also enacted its central manifesto offer, rather spectacularly - borrow a huge amount of money to fund public services. The numbers were eye-watering, historic. Rishi Sunak was not even 10 years old when we last had a Budget that pumped so much money into the economy. There is £175bn extra in spending, not just on infrastructure, as expected, but also on current spending. In fact, most of the extra spending is on day-to-day departmental spending – including on tens of thousands of nurses and police officers etc. Much of the fine detail of where this money will actually go, in terms of department, region, type of public service is not settled. Even the Treasury “Green Book” equation that diverts spending towards places like London, is being reviewed. How is all this paid for? The answer, basically, is around £130bn of extra borrowing over this Parliament, and not really tax rises. Whereas deficits were being phased out under existing Conservative plans, under this one, they become permanent. A structural change on economic policy that seeks to take advantage of historic lows in the interest rates that governments pay to borrow. But this is a government with a lot on its plate: coronavirus, post-Brexit negotiations and running a significant deficit of almost 3%. But this is one of the most consequential Budgets in a generation.