What Kwasi Kwarteng's 'mini-budget' means for Sussex

Announcements in the ‘growth plan’ include a range of tax cuts and support to help households and businesses with spiralling energy costs.

Stamp duty will be cut, a planned corporation tax rise will be abolished, the National Insurance rise will be reversed, the additional rate of tax will be scrapped place and in its place will be a single higher rate of income tax of 40 per cent. The basic rate of income tax will be cut to 19 per cent from April 2023.

Meanwhile the Chancellor also announced the government’s Energy Price Guarantee would save the typical household £1,000 a year on their energy bill with the Energy Bill Relief Scheme halving the cost of energy bills for businesses and other non-domestic users such as charities and public sector organisations.

He also promised new legislation cutting barriers and restrictions, making it quicker to plan and build new roads, speeding up the deployment of energy infrastructure and streamlining environmental assessments and regulations.

Mr Kwarteng said: “Economic growth isn’t some academic term with no connection to the real world. It means more jobs, higher pay and more money to fund public services, like schools and the NHS.

“This will not happen overnight but the tax cuts and reforms I’ve announced today – the biggest package in generations – send a clear signal that growth is our priority.

“Cuts to stamp duty will get the housing market moving and support first-time buyers to put down roots. New Investment Zones will bring business investment and release land for new homes in communities across the country. And we’re accelerating new road, rail and energy projects by removing restrictions that have slowed down progress for too long.

“We want businesses to invest in the UK, we want the brightest and the best to work here and we want better living standards for everyone.”

One of the biggest long-running issues in Sussex is overdevelopment, and the growth plan says the government ‘must accelerate housing delivery’.

It says later this autumn a vision will be set out to unlock home ownership for a new generation by ‘building more homes in the places people want to live and work and by getting our housing market moving’.