LAST Wednesday the Chancellor delivered his Budget and there were many positive announcements that will benefit families in our Central Devon constituency. 

Energy bill support will be extended for a further three months and Fuel Duty will be frozen for another year. 

While these measures will benefit all households, they will particularly benefit low-income families who spend a greater proportion of their income on energy costs and fuel. Small businesses, particularly self-employed sole traders such as plumbers and electricians who clock up a lot of mileage driving to customers, will also benefit. 

After the three-month extension, the typical household will have saved £1,500 on their energy bills since the support scheme was announced. 

The average driver has saved £200 on fuel since the 5p cut in fuel duty was delivered last March.

As Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with responsibility for getting more people back into work, I was particularly pleased with two other major policy announcements. 

The first is that 30 hours free childcare for three-year-olds, introduced by David Cameron, will be extended in stages to help more parents with childcare costs and enable more to return to work. Working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 free hours per week from April 2024 and working parents of children aged nine months to three years old will be able to access 15 free hours per week from September 2024. This will be increased to 30 free hours from September 2025.

I also welcome the Chancellor’s decision to take the bold step of abolishing the Lifetime Allowance for pensions. Older, higher-earning professionals, such as GPs and NHS consultants, have frequently cited the Lifetime Allowance as a major contributing factor to taking early retirement. Incentivising more people to work even just one extra year will make a big difference to our public services and to our economy.

To touch briefly on some of the other policy announcements:

► Roads and potholes - £200 million will be invested in maintaining and improving roads and fixing potholes. As the county with the largest road network in the UK, Devon will receive a sizeable chunk of this.

► Businesses – There will be a major push to simplify the tax system for small and medium-sized businesses and there will be tax relief for businesses who invest in new plant and machinery.

► Defence - An extra £5 billion will be spent on national security over the next two years. This includes £1.9 billion to replace weapons and munitions donated to Ukraine.

To help pay for these policies, Corporation Tax will be increased from 19 per cent to 25 per cent. 

It will be the largest and most profitable businesses paying this extra six per cent - seven out of 10 businesses will not be affected at all and only one in 10 will pay the full 25 per cent rate. Even after the rise, the UK will still have the lowest Corporation Tax in the G7.

► More from Mel at www.melstridemp.com