Budget 2017 LIVE: Philip Hammond faces the nation and what it all means for South Yorkshire

A Sheffield pub licensee has welcomed the news that the beer prices would stay the same after today's Budget.
Garry Scott, who runs the Red Lion on Charles Street, said it was a "blessing" that pints would stay the same price.
Mr Scott said the leasing company, Enterprise Inns, had just put the prices up by 10 pence per pint earlier this year.
"It would have been two price rises in a row," he said.
"It's good news for punters."

“This is a bad budget for Sheffield. It doesn’t address the issues that people raise with me locally, from under-funded schools to a struggling NHS. With tax cuts for the wealthy and pet projects like grammar schools, this Government is simply making the wrong choices.
 
“Schools in my constituency face an average cut of 10.4% but will get no money. Instead, Theresa May is putting millions into a new wave of grammar schools that nobody wants. While she looks back to the 1950s we need more cash for the schools of today, for all children, not just those who pass the 11 plus.
 
“In the referendum on our EU membership last year, the country was promised £350 million a week more for the NHS. Now the Chancellor’s ditched that and is saying we’ll have to save up to £60 billion to prepare for the economic damage of Brexit. The truth is finally dawning on him, but the cost will be paid by ordinary families
 
“Almost half of those who’ll benefit from the £1billion inheritance tax cuts, which the Chancellor is ploughing ahead with, are in London and the South East. Some of the richest families there will be getting huge tax breaks, while the big cuts to Councils in our northern cities have hit local services hard. In tough times, the Government is making the wrong choices."
 

Natalie Bennett, prospective Green Party candidate for Sheffield Central, said 

“Greens are disappointed that the Chancellor has announced that there will be no relief from austerity, despite millions of people struggling to make ends meet, and that he has not taken the opportunity to address some of the fundamental problems currently existing in our society. 

"This is not a budget that is fair and progressive, and will not work for the people of Sheffield.
 
"Last month, Sheffield Greens launched our "Let Sheffield Breathe!" campaign, demanding urgent action on air quality. We are disappointed that there has been no expansion of government-funded Clear Air Zones, already covering Leeds, to include Sheffield.
 
"Air pollution in Sheffield is at dangerous levels right across the city, and contributes to the early death of approximately 500 people per year here.

"This budget was also a missed opportunity to take serious action on the provision of social care. Now more than ever, with the NHS at breaking point, long-term funding is needed to ensure that people are able to be cared for in the community – not in hospital. Today's meagre measures do not come anywhere close to tackling this problem.

"Social care is chronically underfunded and on the verge of collapse, so needs investment rather than to be the victim of central Government cuts."

The big news for the small businessperson is the increase in National Insurance contributions from one to 10 per cent in April next year. Although it will restore some parity with those who are employed's contributions, many will argue it does not factor in enough the fact that the self-employed have no holiday pay. A backlash from small business community seems inevitable, particularly given it will only generate £145 for the Treasury.Elsewhere pubs will be handed a £1,000 discount on their business rates under a £435 million package of measures to help firms set to be the hardest hit by this year's revaluation. 
Local authorities will get a £300 million fund to help small firms facing the sharpest rises as part of a plan to make the revaluation in April more fair.

Corbyn accuses the government of failing to tackle problems of housing supply, not allowing councils to borrow money to build social housing.

He says they've not replaced council housing sold under the right to buy police and have not returned the "right to buy" proceeds to councils.

Corbyn says that there is a "crisis in job security" and that "many people don't know if they will be working day to day".

"There is nothing funny about workers being on zero hours contract"

Jeremy Corbyn has accused the government of "cutting living standards for the many and raising taxes for the few", calculating that there will be a £70bn tax giveaway for "those who need it the least".

Corbyn has said that millions of people will be waking up not knowing if their jobs are safe and millions are waking up struggling to make ends meet.

He says that 4,000 people slept rough last night and condemned the chancellor's boasts about a strong economy.

Jeremy Corbyn says that Hammond's Budget is "utter complacency" and accuses him of not understanding the problems of the public.

He tells MP's that people don't know if their next pay packet will be enough and that homelessness is on the increase.

Hammond promises a grant of £2 billion for the next 3 years has been granted for social care in England.
£1 billion in 2017-18.

Hammond says that £216 million has been pledged to improve schools over the next three years.

Earlier - Hammond stated that working parents hree-and-four-year-olds will get their free childcare entitlement doubled to 30 hours a week.

He used International Women's Day to announce

• £20m to support the campaign against violence Against Women and Girls
• £12m from tampon tax going to women's charities
• £5m to returnships to the public and private sector, helping people back into employment after a career break.

Hammond has now finally mentioned the North - promising £90m for "The North" to address highway pinch points and a competition for funding for local transport.

In 2015, the Conservatives promised to raise the threshold at which workers pay income tax to £12,500 a year by 2020. 

It also pledged that by that time the 40% tax rate would not kick in until £50,000. Mr Hammond has now re-committed to both those pledges.

Hammond says that the national living wage will rise to £7.50 in April. Personal tax allowance will rise to £11,500, increasing to £12,500.

Hammond explains that the Sugar Tax is brining in less cash than expected.

Hammond tells MP's that self-employed people earning less than £16,250 will see a reduction in their tax bill.

Hammond then says there will be help for businesses struggling with rate increases and they will get an additional £435m help

Hammond says that 90% of pubs in England will get a £1,000 discount on business rates

Inflation is forecast to hit 2.4% this year, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Will then fall to 2.3% in 2018, 2% in 2019 - keeping it at or above the Bank of England's 2% inflation target for three years.

Hammond tells MPs that unemployment has fallen fastest in Yorkshire and the Humber and Wales

OBR forecast in 2021 broadly the same at Autumn Statement - OBR upgraded forecast from 1.4% to 2% next year

Growth then revised down to 1.6% in 2018, 1.7% in 2019, 1.7% in 2020 and 1.9% in 2021

Hammond tells MPs that Britain's economy was second only to Germany, employment record high, unemployment 11 year low. A very far cry from the 3m unemployment predicted by Labour.

The PM earlier announced that she would be creating a £5m fund to help parents return to work.

Explaining the fund is open to both men and women, she said: "Getting back into a career is often difficult," she says, so it's "right and fair" to women that we provide returnships - schemes to help them return to their careers or new ones."

The budget announcement are due to begin at 12.30pm, but before that we have Prime Minister’s Questions.

Theresa May is, as usual, facing off against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Philip Hammond has presented his Budget plans to Cabinet at an early-morning meeting in Downing Street ahead of a statement which Treasury sources said would provide an "upbeat" assessment of the UK's economic prospects after Brexit.
Mr Hammond's first Budget as Chancellor is expected to include help for companies facing hikes in their business rates, as well as additional money for social care, schools and science.
But the Chancellor will admit more austerity is in the pipeline, making clear he is ready to take further "difficult decisions" on tax hikes and spending cuts, despite acknowledging many voters are still feeling the pinch 10 years on from the financial crash of 2007/08.