Last modified on Thu 4 Mar 2021 05.02 EST
Birmingham, with its proud manufacturing heritage, has been hit hard by the Covid jobs crisis and is in the unhappy position of being among one of the areas with the highest unemployment rates in the country at 7.8%.
Five of the 10 constituencies with the highest level of unemployment in the country are in Britain’s second city, and average gross weekly pay currently sits at £548.60 – below the averages for the wider West Midlands region and for Great Britain.
In a scene repeated up and down the country, lockdown has left the city centre deserted – a particular blow for Birmingham. The city had bet big on high street retail in recent years with the redevelopment of the Bullring, known for the undulating silver facade of the Selfridges department store at its heart, and a shopping centre built as part of the overhaul of New Street station, featuring a vast new John Lewis .
Newly self-employed people will be breathing a sigh of relief today as the Chancellor confirmed that those who traded between and have completed a tax return for 2019 to 2020 are eligible for help.
The group, which includes more than 600,000 people who went self-employed last year, was unable to access the first three instalments as they had not yet filed a full tax return. But they can apply for the fourth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant.
But the self-employed who have made a profit of more than £50,000 in recent years still remain excluded from claiming anything under SEISS whatsoever, despite their being no similar earnings cap for the furlough scheme.
An embroiderer who worked on royal wedding gowns said she still fears losing her home as she has been excluded from Government support throughout the pandemic.
Chloe Savage, 43, said she only received a £1,000 grant in November which barely covered her running costs for two weeks, and she has been forced to give up her workshop.
The mother-of-two, from Warmley, near Bristol, was enlisted to help create the dresses of both the Duchess of Cambridge, 38, in 2011 and the Duchess of Sussex, 39, in 2018.
But despite her high-profile past successes, the expert needleworker has described the last year as absolutely heartbreaking .
Ms Savage, who supports both the Excluded UK and ForgottenLtd campaigns, which are asking the Government for more support for self-employed and small business owners, said she was not expecting good news from today s Budget announcement.
In the context of both a global pandemic and Brexit, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has finished presenting his Budget 2021 to the House of Co