Budget 2023: Jeremy Hunt to set out economic plans as proposed £4bn childcare boost welcomed by experts

Expanded childcare and extended energy bill support expected to be announced during Jeremy Hunt’s first budget

Good morning. Last year we had a series of huge fiscal announcements from the Treasury, as well as perhaps the most consequential “mini-budget” of all time (it brought down a PM), but we never an actual, proper budget. Today’s will be the first real once since autumn 2022. Jeremy Hunt will deliver it at 12.30pm.

Rather, deliver what is left of it. The Treasury itself has already briefed many of the significant measures in it. It sent out at least eight budget-related press notices in recent days, and another one arrived this morning, confirming that under the energy price guarantee energy unit costs will be capped for another three months, so that the average household faces an annual bill of £2,500. The cap was due to rise at the end of April, pushing an average bill up to £3,000. There is more coverage of this on our business live blog.

While we will need to look closely at the detail, if the government does increase the hourly funding rates to early years providers this will be welcome news. We know that the funding settings currently receive from government is woefully inadequate and many providers simply cannot afford to operate at those levels.