Free school meals for millions of pupils and bootcamps for kids as Rishi Sunak unveils £3bn skills revolution

RISHI Sunak today announced summer free school meals will continue for millions of pupils as he unveiled a £3billion skills revolution.

The Chancellor used his Budget to put boosters under Boris Johnson's pledge to build a high-wage economy and “level up” the UK.

He announced plans to turbo-charge post-16 education to give everyone the chance to find jobs and earn more.

There will be £200m a year to support school holiday camps and the school food programme.

Man Utd footballer Marcus Rashford had been urging the Chancellor to guarantee a "meal a day" to kids during the summer break.

Rishi's slew of new policies includes free, personal maths coaching for 500,000 adults who failed to make the grade at school.

Extra funds will also be pumped into modern apprenticeships, skills bootcamps and new T-level technical courses for teenagers.

Rishi said much of the new cash is focussed on preparing the workforce for cutting edge technologies of the future.

He announced funding for training artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and nuclear is being quadrupled.

Unveiling his budget to the Commons today, he declared: "We’re confirming £150m to support training and development for the entire early years workforce.

"To help up to 300,000 more families facing multiple needs, we’re investing an extra £200m in the Supporting Families programme.

"And we will provide over £200m a year to continue the holiday activity and food programme."

He added: "Today’s Spending Review also delivers our commitment to schools, with an extra £4.7bn by 2024-25.

"Combined with the ambitious plans we announced at Spending Review 2019, this will restore per pupil funding to 2010 levels in real terms.

"Equivalent to a cash increase for every pupil of more than £1,500.

"And for children with special educational needs and disabilities we’re more than tripling the amount we invest to create 30,000 new school places.

"We know that the pandemic caused significant disruption to children’s learning."

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The budget has put a heavy focus on plugging Britain's skills gap which has led to shortages in key areas, such as HGV drivers.

It includes new measures like the “Multiply” programme — a £560million scheme to improve adult maths skills.

Meanwhile apprenticeship funding will increase by £170million to a record high of £2.7billion.

Cash will be provided for 100,000 extra classroom hours for T-Levels, plus 24,000 new traineeships.

The chancellor also announced a pay boost for millions of Brits by hiking the national living wage by 6.6% to from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour.

He says the move will add on average around £1,000 before tax to the annual pay of a full-time worker.

And he pledged to end the public-sector pay freeze for five million workers from April.

Ministers have vowed not to build Britain's recovery from the pandemic "on the backs of" the lowest paid workers.

They want to eradicate low pay by making sure the minimum wage becomes two thirds of the average salary by 2024