The Treasury said it was supporting British businesses through measures like bringing in 50% business rates relief for eligible High Street businesses and freezing the amount it uses to calculate rates that will be worth 4.6 m over the next five years.
He said there will be circumstances in which we will have to do more on rates. We're not there yet in terms of the next meeting. We're still a month away, but that's on the table. In April, the energy price cap, which limits how much suppliers can raise the cost of household bills, went up to 1,971 for the typical household. This is an increase of about 700, and the cap is expected to increase by another 800 a year in October.
Official figures released on Thursday showed that the UK's current account deficit hit the largest shortfall since records began in 1955, as the gap between the value of goods and services imported compared to exports was narrowed in the first three months of the year.
The deficit was 51.7 billion bn in the January-to-March period, equivalent to 8.3% of GDP, although the Office for National Statistics cautioned against the figures because they were subject to higher uncertainty than normal because of changes in the way the data is collected.
There is a change in our trading relationship with the EU that was always going to be the case, and the government is looking at how we can ease some of the burdens further, particularly on the Northern Ireland side.