Weaver Vale MP Mike Amesbury on his hopes for tomorrow's Budget.

As we transition through the road map, Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget is an opportunity to ensure this awful coronavirus tragedy does not turn into an economic disaster.

We need to build forward to a fairer and greener economy, not go back to the gross inequalities of the past.

Lockdown has been tough, the government was late to the table on every occasion from PPE procurement, the shambolic Test and Trace system and every lockdown.

It’s no coincidence we have one of the highest Covid-19 death rates per capita in the world and the worst economic slowdown in 300 years. Bottom of the league when it comes to the G7. 

Hope has arrived with the success of the vaccine rollout and at last the virus is being curtailed. The global scientific community, our NHS and volunteers having been doing us all proud. This budget must have that kind of social solidarity at its heart, to drive our recovery.

Past Tory governments have often tried and failed to cut their way out of a crisis. But more austerity would be the worst possible course of action for UK plc. A decade of austerity prior to this crisis hollowed out our public services, our lack of resilience has been all too plain to see.

The Government should instead continue to use its vast resources to inject spending power and confidence to get the country back on its feet in an upward spiral of growth that would also fill Treasury coffers. The public and private sector are interdependent, the scale of state intervention over the last year has shone a light on that.

For now, that means keeping financial support measures such as furlough but making it more flexible, the Business Rates holiday and the VAT cut. But it should be combined with a COVID debt plan, and details of the Business Rates review to help save our high streets.

In Weaver Vale there are 7,922 people reliant on Universal Credit – many will be unemployed for the first time, others are in work but on low wages. The Government introduced a £20 a week uplift to help struggling families during the pandemic and that needs to stay.

It will continue to support those families but will also be spent in local shops and businesses, helping to rejuvenate the high street.

At the height of the pandemic, Tory ministers were keen to be seen clapping key workers who kept this country going but this dedication was later rewarded with a slap in the face. The pay freeze introduced last autumn must be reversed. Only health workers are exempt.

Trade unions are calling for an end to the pay freeze for all public sector workers, the abolition of zero-hours contracts and a rise in the minimum wage. Not only is this morally the right thing to do but it would give a boost to consumer demand. More jobs saved, more spend in the local economy and more tax revenues to pay down the public debt.

And the Government needs to support sectors that have been particularly badly hit like hospitality, leisure and tourism; areas that represent a big chunk of Cheshire’s economic output.

We need a package of measures to support the county’s attractions, hotels, pubs and restaurants including the self- employed, who have been excluded from support measures throughout.

COVID has accelerated trends already taking place such as the move to online retail, with profits soaring at companies like Amazon.

Those with the broadest shoulders are in a position to bear the greatest burden, a fair burden. I would support a windfall tax on these global giants to help spread the tax burden as we recover, a tax not on the bricks and mortar in our high streets but on those that have enjoyed a web-based COVID dividend

And rather than imposing a £2 billion pound council tax bombshell on hard pressed households - just under 5 per cent per dwelling - the chancellor should be doing the right thing and clawing back some of the billions awarded to companies without competition that happened to donate to his political party.

This money would give councils the extra financial support they need to continue supporting our most vulnerable adults and children without having to jack up the council tax. Passing the pain of this crisis to local communities would not only break Tory promises but impact on local spending power.

Finally, a visionary Green New Deal that invests in environmentally sustainable jobs would help deliver on the pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions and generate employment at a time when there are millions on the dole – the highest unemployment has been for five years.

The Government could start by working with Vauxhall Motors’ parent company to protect 1,000 jobs – including those of my constituents - by securing a commitment to make electric vehicles up the road in Ellesmere Port.