NE Herts MP Oliver Heald has welcomed Jeremy Hunt’s Budget designed for growth. The Budget included a forecast that inflation would fall to 2.9 per cent by the end of 2023, that the economy would grow every year and that debt and borrowing would fall every year. It included incentives for investment and workforce measures to help people enter work and stay in work. This was estimated to increase the numbers in the workforce by 110,000 a year. The main measure for this was the plan to deliver 30 hours of free childcare for working parents of children older than 9 months.

Commenting, Oliver Heald said: ‘I am delighted that this is a Budget for growth and will help so many people into work or to stay in work. I am also glad to see help for Defence and national security. I have previously raised with the Chancellor a range  of issues: supporting motorists, helping pubs and giving support with the cost of living and I am glad that he has delivered’.