Coronavirus, housing, jobs and infrastructure should be in today's Budget for Sheffield

Rishi Sunak should introduce emergency loans for companies facing a cash crisis due to a drop in customers, supply hold ups, or workers off sick, according to Drew Woodhouse, economics lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.

Longer term, tax breaks and subsidies to increase the supply of social and affordable housing should be top priority.

Meanwhile, Dan Jarvis, Sheffield City Region Mayor, has called on the Government to deliver its promise to level up the economy by investing in South Yorkshire.In his Budget submission, he asks for the full £220m Transforming Cities Fund allocation, £200m for flood mitigation schemes and £300m to connect Doncaster Sheffield Airport to the East Coast Main Line.

The environment and sustainability must be at the heart of future investment, he adds.

Transport for the North wants the Treasury to overhaul the “Green Book,” which favours investing in the South, to rebalance the UK economy by ensuring vital Northern infrastructure projects are funded.

It has written to Rishi Sunak MP to demand a commitment to build the £39 billion Northern Powerhouse Rail network in full by 2040, £7bn for a Northern Infrastructure Pipeline of road and rail projects in the early 2020s and £1 billion for TfN over the next three years so it can deliver on this vision.

The Confederation of British Industry has urged the Chancellor to put Yorkshire and The Humber at the heart of the Budget with a ‘comprehensive review’ of business rates to reduce the bill on firms, further devolution, a network of high-end research hubs and funding for scale-up companies in Sheffield City Region.

CBI regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, Beckie Hart, said: “At the start of this new decade, firms are feeling more optimistic and want to invest.

“This historic Budget offers the chance to turn rising optimism into a surge in investment across the UK. Backed by a pro-enterprise Budget for skills, infrastructure and innovation, business can help kickstart a new decade of UK growth and job creation.”

And a new report is calling for serious money to be pumped into hydrogen energy and small modular nuclear reactors - both a Sheffield regional strength.

The government-funded research group Energy Systems Catapult says the UK can meet its climate neutral target by 2050 if the government urgently invests in three key technologies: carbon capture and storage with bioenergy crops, hydrogen for a wide variety of uses and advanced nuclear power.

ITM Power is building the world’s largest hydrogen equipment plant in Tinsley and the Nuclear AMRC is developing small modular nuclear reactors with Rolls Royce and others in Rotherham.

The government has already announced statutory sick pay from day one, not day four, to help contain the virus.

But Mr Woodhouse said the budget was the right time to take further steps.

He added: ''The Budget must focus on resilience in the short term to overcome the impact at firms that are already pushed by Brexit issues."

The government could offer to underwrite bank loans to struggling firms as an emergency measure, he added.

Some manufacturers have already been affected by a 20 per cent fall in supplies from China, while coffee shops, restaurants and cinemas have been hit by a drop in custom.

Radical expansion of university research centres, spin-out companies and business support should be high on the Chancellor’s to-do list.

Sheffield University’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre is the jewel in the crown of northern research institutions, earning £124m last year.

Following the departure of founder Keith Ridgway last year, a group of northern leaders have submitted a multi-million pound bid to government to take it independent.

Sheffield Hallam University opened the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre in January. It aims to boost productivity in health-related businesses.

Universities can also offer academic expertise and student interns to help companies, Mr Woodhouse said.

"The government is pushing for improvements in productivity. Universities are the best way of locking in growth at companies which in turn create more jobs, including for graduates.”

They would ease the housing crisis and stem the flow of people priced out of the market.

“People in their late twenties with good jobs can't get on the housing ladder and Help to Buy has only made prices rise even more.”

The CBI’s list in full:

1. The UK’s business rates system puts many parts of the UK economy at a competitive disadvantage. A comprehensive review should reduce the bill on individual businesses. That review should be completed by year end to incentivise investment by firms across the UK.

2. Help promote further devolution in the region and offer a framework setting out clear guidelines to support the development of new deals and establish criteria for assessing deal proposals.

3. The Government’s National Infrastructure Strategy is welcome and should as a first step commit to delivering HS2 in full to unlock capacity and transport connections across the North. It should allocate funds to a wide range of strategic infrastructure projects set out in the CBI’s full submission, including the East Coast Mainline upgrades, upgrades to the Calder Valley Line and Trans Pennine Route and channel digital infrastructure funding to hard to reach places.

4. Innovation investment drives good jobs and global strength but is currently concentrated in the South. The UK should establish a network of high-end research hubs throughout Yorkshire and the Humber to build on local strengths, develop low carbon zones and support innovation clusters

7. Vital steps on the regions path to Net Zero should be announced, in particular using regulation to ensure that all commercial properties are deemed more energy efficient, further develop testbeds for hydrogen deployment which could transform low carbon usage, and fast-track the doubling of funding for on-street charging points to ensure coverage for electric vehicles across Yorkshire and the Humber by 2024.

8. Fund scale up in Sheffield City Region across key sectors including aero, auto, and steel, building on the success of the Made Smarter pilot and boosting the region’s competitiveness. The scheme would offer up to 50 per cent match funding to businesses in the region, as well as guidance on creating an effective digital roadmap to ensure the right technology is taking business in the right direction.