Rishi Sunak has pledged ￡25bn towards a “super deduction” tax break for companies to spur investment in what the chancellor called the “biggest business tax cut in modern history”.

Sunak said the two-year tax break would allow companies to deduct 130 per cent of their investment from their taxable income, cutting their taxes by the equivalent of 25p in the pound. The move is part of an effort to kickstart a recovery from the worst economic crisis in living memory.

At the same time, the chancellor announced in his Budget that corporation tax would jump from 19 to 25 per cent in 2023, a much sharper increase than expected by business leaders, as the government tries to get to grips with the cost of its spiralling pandemic debts. He insisted that even at 25 per cent, the UK would still have the lowest corporation tax rate in the G7.