To boldly go: chancellor sets out productivity plans in summer budget

This is the opinion of the chancellor George Osborne, whose summer budget outlined intentions to position Britain as a higher wage, lower tax, and lower welfare country.

Speaking in Parliament ahead of Friday’s Plan for Productivity, Osborne said: “This is a big budget for a country with big ambitions…We will be bold in transforming education…Bold in delivering infrastructure. Bold in building the Northern Powerhouse.”

Specific measures outlined today include a change to the main rate of Corporation Tax - cut from 28% in 2010 to 20% - which will undergo a phased reduction to 18% by 2020.

Furthermore, from 2016 businesses will be able to deduct the full value of certain items, including equipment and machinery, up to a total value of £200,000 from their profits before tax, thereby providing full tax relief in the year items are purchased.

An apprenticeship levy on all large firms is expected to help fund the creation of three million new apprenticeships by 2020, with firms offering apprenticeships ‘getting back more than they put in’.