How will George Osborne's 2011 Budget affect the construction Industry?

This lunchtime, Chancellor George Osborne revealed the government’s Budget for 2011 in the House of Commons. As well as dealing with important issues such as petrol prices, taxes and high unemployment, the Chancellor detailed some changes which will affect the construction sector.

Some of the Budget’s changes that will affect construction are:

• Creating a £250 million shared equity fund, which will help 10,000 first-time buyers afford their own house. This only applies to new homes.
• 40,000 new apprenticeships in the UK will be created to help young people find work.
• Increased funding will be made available for 100,000 work experience placements, which has increased to five times the previous number.
• 250,000 new apprenticeships will be created by 2015.
• The Green Investment Bank (which we wrote about on the blog, read it here) is going ahead and will be given £2 billion extra funding (£3bn total) and will open a year earlier in 2012.
• The UK will be the first country to introduce a Carbon Floor Price in the power sector, which is a tax on CO2 emissions. Price will be £16 per tonne in 2013 and aims to be £30 per tonne by 2020.

We will have more Budget 2011 news and analysis on the Train4TradeSkills Blog later.

In the meantime, let us know what you think about the Budget on the Train4TradeSkills Facebook and Twitter pages.

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