Chancellor Outlines Supply-Side Reforms

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivering the Autumn Statement. Hunt on boosting business investment with supply side reforms:

• On planning reforms: "We will invest £110m over this year and next to deliver high quality nutrient mitigation schemes, unlocking 40,000 homes. We will invest £32m to bust the planning backlog [...]. We will allocate £450m to the Local Authority Housing Fund to deliver 2400 new homes."
• Hunt: "...planning and grid reforms are estimated to accelerate around £90bn of additional business investment over the next 10 years."
• On R&D: "To further support research and development, I am creating a new simplified R&D tax relief, combining the existing R&D Expenditure Credit and SME schemes. I will also reduce the rate at which loss-making companies are taxed within the merged scheme from 25% to 19% and lower the threshold for the additional support for R&D intensive loss-making SMEs that I announced in Spring, to 30%,"
• On advanced manufacturing and green energy: "I confirm that we will make available £4.5bn of support over the 5 years to 2030 to attract investment into strategic manufacturing sectors...includes support of £2bn for zero emission investments in the automotive sector...£975m for aerospace, ... and £520m for life sciences."
• On Investment Zones and Freeports: "I have today decided to extend the financial incentives for Investment Zones and tax reliefs for Freeports from 5 years to 10 years."