Parents – working 16 hours a week – of children aged nine months to five years will get 15 hours free childcare to encourage caregivers to enter the workforce.
This will be staggered from April 2024 to ensure enough places. Children up to two years old will get 15 hours free from April 2024, children from nine months up will benefit from September 2024, and from September 2025 every single working parent of a child under five will have access to 30 hours free childcare per week.
The lifetime allowance – the total amount workers can accumulate in their pension savings before paying extra tax – has been abolished. Mr Hunt hopes it will stop 80% of NHS doctors from receiving a tax charge.
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The pensions annual tax-free allowance will rise by 50% from £40,000 to £60,000.
Tax relief of 11p has been announced on draft drinks served in pubs from 1 August.
An extension of the 5p cut in fuel duty, at a cost of £6bn, has been announced for a year. Fuel duty will also be frozen for the next 12 months.
The government will abolish the work capability assessment for disabled people and separate benefit entitlement from an individual’s ability to work. The aim is to enable disabled people to seek work without fear of losing their benefits.
A new programme called universal support will also fund extra support for disabled people to find work.
A new apprenticeship, called a returnership, will be created for those aged 50 and older wanting to return to work. Mr Hunt said it will make existing skills programmes more appealing for older workers and focus on previous experience.
An extra £400m will increase mental health and musculoskeletal workplace support to stop people being forced to leave work due to sickness.
As corporation tax on profits over £250,000 is due to rise from 19% to 25% in April, businesses will be able to offset 100% of UK investments against their profits to bring down tax bills. The OBR said it will increase business investment by 3% for every year. Mr Hunt announced the measure for the next three years but intends to make it permanent “as soon as we can responsibly do so”.
An “enhanced credit” has been introduced for small and medium-sized businesses if they spend 40% or more of their total expenditure on research and development. They can claim credit worth £27 for every £100 spent.
As expected, the government is extending the energy price guarantee (EPG), which keeps the average household bill at £2,500 until the end of June by capping the unit price of electricity. The typical bill was due to rise to £3,000 from 1 April. Under the EPG the government effectively caps household costs and reimburses energy companies for the difference between that, and the cost of buying power on wholesale markets.
The energy rebate scheme – paid direct to customers in six instalments of £66 and £67 a month – has not been extended and will end this month.
The so-called “prepayment premium”, whereby those using prepayment meters are charged more for their gas and electricity, will be scrapped from July, enabling four million families to save £45 a year on their bills.
Twelve new investment zones or “potential Canary Wharfs” will be eligible for £80m in funding to boost business there, with at least one each in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The ones in England are: Greater Manchester, West Midlands, North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Midlands, Teesside, and Liverpool.
There will also be £200m extra funding for local regeneration projects.
An extra £200m a year – in addition to the £500m already allocated – will be made available to tackle “the curse” of potholes.
Public leisure centres and pools will share a £63m fund to help with costs.
From next year medicines and technologies approved by other trusted global regulators will be eligible for “near automatic” sign-off.
Defence spending will rise an extra £11bn over the next five years. The defence budget is currently about £50bn.
Up to £600m in tax relief on energy efficiency measures has been announced for businesses, in a bid to reduce energy use by 15%.
Nuclear power will be classed as “environmentally sustainable” to grow investment in the sector.
The government plans for a quarter of electricity to be nuclear-powered by 2050. To that end Great British Nuclear has been created – with the aim to “bring down costs and provide opportunities across the nuclear supply chain”.
Britain’s most notorious gangster and the detective who pursued him have been involved in a bizarre confrontation…at a charity lunch.
Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown was at a Kent golf club and about to give a talk on the infamous £26m Brink’s-Mat gold robbery when he was summoned from the stage by officials.
Mr Brown, who appeared on the award-winning Sky News StoryCast podcast The Hunt For The Brink’s-Mat Gold in 2019, said: “I go outside and they say ‘he’s here’ and I say ‘who’s here’ and they say that table over there in the corner, that’s Kenny Noye with a baseball cap pulled down over his head.”
Noye stabbed to death an undercover policeman during the Brink’s-Mat investigation, but was acquitted of murder, though he was jailed for handling the stolen gold.
Mr Brown, 86, said: “I went over to him and said ‘thanks for coming, nice of you to pop in’, but I don’t believe you’ve turned up with your sons and grandkids to listen to me telling how you killed a police officer.
“And he said ‘I want to make sure you don’t say I’ve been dealing drugs’ and I said ‘I’ve never said that Kenny’.”
The retired detective told Noye he wasn’t going to change his presentation just because he was there.
“He said ‘mate, I wouldn’t expect you to and I’ll come up [on stage] if you want me to’.
“Can you think how he’s turned up with his family to listen to somebody talking about you killing the police? Now, you put logic on that.”
The bizarre story emerged when I rang Mr Brown after I’d been told about the meeting.
Image: A Sky News podcast told the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist in 2019
I also wanted to ask him about the recent BBC hit drama series The Gold which retold the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist at Heathrow Airport in 1983.
“It was an absolute shambles, far too much dramatic licence and the real story was so much better,” said the ex-detective, whose job had been to follow the trail of the 6,800 gold bars to the US and the Caribbean.
He said he chatted to one of the show’s writers for a long time in a phone call but then heard no more.
“They invented people, changed a bit here and there and made it politically correct in so many ways. I’m just very sad that that is what people will believe.
“And I couldn’t work out who my character was supposed to be. I could have been one of the female cops.”
He also criticised the portrayal of Noye, now 78, as a likeable jack-the-lad character when the truth about the double killer with a volatile temper was quite different.
Oasis have reunited on stage for the first time in almost 16 years – with brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher sharing a high five and the briefest of hugs as they closed a performance that for fans was more than worth the wait.
After the split in 2009, for many years Noel said he would never go back – and for a long time, as the brothers exchanged insults through separate interviews (and on social media, for Liam), it seemed pretty unlikely to ever happen.
But now, here they are. As they walked out on stage at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, all eyes were on the Gallaghers for a sense of their relationship – dare we say it, friendship? – now after all these years.
There was no reference to their fall-out or making up, but the gestures were there – lifting hands together as they walked out for the first time.
Image: The headline “OASIS REUNITED” was shown on stage at the gig. Pic: PA
Image: Fans at the Oasis gig. Pic: PA
Headlines and tweets of speculation and then confirmation of the reunion filled the screens as the show started. “This is happening,” said one, repeatedly.
In the end, it was all about the music.
Liam has received criticism in the past for his voice not being what it once was during his solo or Beady Eye performances, but back on stage with his brother tonight he delivered exactly what fans would have hoped for – a raw, steely-eyed performance, snarling vocals, and the swagger that makes him arguably the greatest frontman of his day.
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This was Oasis sounding almost as good as they ever have.
Image: Fans sang along and held up their phones to film as Oasis performed. Pic: PA
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2:56
Oasis: ‘It’s good to be back’
They opened with Hello, because of course, “it’s good to be back”. And then Acquiesce, and those lyrics: “Because we need each other/ We believe in one another.”
The song is said to be about friendship in the wider sense, rather than their brotherly bond and sibling rivalry, but you can’t help but feel like it means something here.
Over two hours, they played favourite after favourite – including Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic and Roll With It.
Image: Liam Gallagher as Oasis takes to the stage in Cardiff. Pic: PA
In the mid-section, Liam takes his break for Noel to sing Talk Tonight, Half The World Away and Little By Little; the tempo slows but there is by no means a lull, with the fans singing all his words back to him.
Liam returns for hits including Stand By Me, Slide Away, Whatever and Live Forever, before sending the crowd wild (or even wilder) with Rock And Roll Star.
Image: Noel Gallagher performing on stage. Pic: PA
Image: An Oasis fan is pointing at the stage during the gig. Pic: PA
When the reunion announcement was made last summer, it quickly became overshadowed by the controversy of dynamic pricing causing prices to rocket. As he has done on X before, Liam addressed the issue on stage with a joke.
“Was it worth the £4,000 you paid for the ticket?” he shouted at one point. “Yeah,” the crowd shouts back; seemingly all is forgiven.
After Rock And Roll Star, the dream that very quickly became a reality for this band, Noel introduced the rest of the group, calling Bonehead a “legend”.
Image: Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs of Oasis. Pic: PA
Image: Liam Gallagher carried a tambourine in his mouth during the concert. Pic: PA
Then he acknowledges all their young fans, some who maybe weren’t even born when they split. “This one is for all the people in their 20s who’ve never seen us before, who’ve kept this shit going,” he says before the encore starts with The Masterplan.
Noel follows with Don’t Look Back In Anger, and the screens fill with Manchester bees in reference to the arena bombing and how the song became the sound of hope and defiance for the city afterwards.
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1:31
‘I’d have paid £10,000 to see them’
Image: Two fans sat on their friends’ shoulders as Oasis performed. Pic: PA
During Wonderwall, there’s a nice touch as Liam sings to the crowd: “There are many things I would like to say to you, but I don’t speak Welsh.”
It is at the end of Champagne Supernova, which closes the set, that it happens; Noel puts down his guitar, and they come together for a high-five and a back-slap, a blink-and-you’d miss it hug.
“Right then, beautiful people, this is it,” Liam had told the crowd as he introduced the song just a few minutes earlier. “Nice one for putting up with us over the years.”
From the roar of the audience, it’s safe to say most people here would agree it’s been worth it.
Former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey has been charged with five counts of rape.
The 32-year-old has also been charged with one count of sexual assault.
Two of the counts of rape relate to one woman, three counts relate to a second woman, and the one count of sexual assault relates to a third woman.
The incidents are alleged to have taken place between 2021 and 2022.
Metropolitan Police said he is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 5 August.
“The charges follow an investigation by detectives, which commenced in February 2022 after police first received a report of rape,” the force said.
Partey has just left Arsenal after his contract expired and was said to be attracting interest from clubs including Juventus, Barcelona and Fenerbahce.
The Ghanaian player was at the Emirates for five years after signing from Atletico Madrid and has also played dozens of times for his country.
His time with Arsenal was marked by recurring injuries but he played 130 times for the club in the Premier League, including 35 times last season when he scored four goals.
Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy said: “Our priority remains providing support to the women who have come forward.”
Anyone who has information about the case, or has been impacted by it, is being asked to contact the Met Police.