Forex Trading For Beginners 2021: Budget 2021: Chancellor set to announce £400m for arts sector

Shaftsbury Avenue in central London during the UK's third COVID-19 lockdown on January 20, 2021

The chancellor is set to announce more than £400m of additional support for the badly-hit culture sector in Wednesday's Budget.

Rishi Sunak is preparing to hand out £408m to help museums, theatres and galleries in England reopen once Covid restrictions start to ease.

He will also announce a £150m fund to help communities take over local pubs.

It comes as Tory grandee Lord Hague said taxes would have to go up as part of the UK's recovery from the pandemic.

The chancellor will outline the state of the UK economy and its outlook for the future during his 3 March Commons statement and give details of the government's plans for raising or lowering taxes.

In preparation for the Budget, the Treasury has revealed a series of funding packages targeting support at the beleaguered culture, sport and pub sectors.

All have seen profits and activity badly impacted since social distancing was introduced at the start of the Covid outbreak last year.

Mr Sunak is expected to put an extra £300m into the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, as part of the measures.

National museums and cultural bodies will also receive £90m to help keep them afloat until they can open their doors on 17 May at the earliest, with £18.8m provided for community cultural projects.

An additional £77m will be given to the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to provide their culture groups with similar backing.

Mr Sunak said: "This industry is a significant driver of economic activity, employing more than 700,000 people in jobs across the UK, and I am committed to ensuring the arts are equipped to captivate audiences in the months and years to come."

The chancellor will also use his Budget speech to deliver a £150m Community Ownership Fund to allow pub-goers to bid for up to £250,000 to save their favourite local.

And English cricket will receive a "significant chunk" of a new £300m summer sports recovery package.

But former Conservative leader Lord Hague warned that after 12 months of heavy public borrowing to pay for furlough and other government support efforts, taxes would have to rise.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said: "It pains me to say, after spending much of my life arguing for lower taxes, that we have reached the point where at least some business and personal taxes have to go up."

Analysis box by Chris Mason, political correspondent

As an MP, Lord Hague represented Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales. The splendour of Wensleydale, Swaledale and much else besides.

His successor in the seat, Rishi Sunak, was forced to grapple with the colossal economic consequences of a pandemic within weeks of becoming chancellor.

A year on, with early evidence the medical emergency is beginning to wane, the bleak economic prognosis hangs heavy.

Vast borrowing, giant amounts of debt and a huge political question: Should taxes go up to pay for it?

At the weekend, the former Conservative chancellor Lord Clarke said yes.

Now the former Tory leader Lord Hague has said yes as well.

Rishi Sunak has said he will "level with people about the challenges we face."

On Wednesday we'll find out what he means by that.

Some Conservative MPs - including former Brexit Secretary David Davis - have warned against tax rises.

Potential Tory rebels have been told they risk being kicked out of the parliamentary party if they vote against the Budget.

The chancellor is reportedly considering raising corporation tax to as much as 25% from 19%.

On Sunday, Mr Sunak said he said he wanted to "be honest" with the public about the pandemic's impact on the economy and "clear about what our plan to address that is".

Meanwhile, Labour's shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, has suggested her party could support an increase to corporation tax in the "long term".

Ms Dodds used a speech on Monday to argue that now is "not the time" for tax rises but signalled she could support an increase in corporation tax in the future.

Labour had previously said it would oppose a rise in corporation tax in the Budget.