After 18 months of the pandemic and three lockdowns, the British economy is in much better shape than had been expected, the chancellor Rishi Sunak told the Commons on Wednesday while presenting his much anticipated autumn budget.

Referring to new immigration policies, he said the “scale-up visa system” would make it quicker and easier for fast-growing businesses to bring in highly-skilled individuals.

It would help “identify, attract and relocate the best global talent in key science and tech sectors” — “all part of our plan to make our visa system for international talent the most competitive in the world”.

Most of the Tory front bench, including the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wore masks. On the Opposition benches, the Labour leader Keir Starmer was missing — he has Covid.

There is one point of special interest for Indians. The chancellor indicated the UK is now open to the best and the brightest from abroad.

Migration, Sunak believed, was good for Britain.

Perhaps he had Venkatraman Ramakrishnan in mind when he said: “A third of our science Nobel Laureates have been immigrants.

“Half of our fastest growing companies have a foreign-born founder. So, an economy built on innovation must be open and attractive to the best and brightest minds.”

Referring to Priti Patel, he went on: “Thanks to our brilliant home secretary, today’s budget confirms the eligibility criteria for our new scale-up visa, making it quicker and easier for fast-growing businesses to bring in highly skilled individuals.”

He spoke of the international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan: “The trade secretary’s new Global Talent Network, launching initially in the Bay Area, Boston, and Bangalore, will identify, attract and relocate the best global talent in key science and tech sectors. All part of our plan to make our visa system for international talent the most competitive in the world.”

Sunak has a Bangalore connection himself though his father-in-law, Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy.

His budget, Sunak declared, set out a plan for a “new economy, post-Covid”.

He pledged that the overseas aid budget, which he had cut by £4bn earlier this year, would return to 0.7 per cent of GDP, as was previously the case, by 2024-25.

According to figures from the independent Office for budget responsibility, “annual growth was set to rebound by 6.5 per cent this year, followed by 6 per cent in 2022,” said Sunak.

“I’m grateful to the OBR for their work, and I’m pleased to say they now expect our recovery to be quicker,” Sunak said. “Thanks to this government’s actions, they forecast the economy to return to its pre-Covid level at the turn of the year — earlier than they thought in March.

“Growth this year is revised up from 4 per cent to 6.5 per cent. The OBR then expect the economy to grow by 6 per cent in 2022, and 2.1 per cent, 1.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent over the next three years.”

He added: “In July last year, at the height of the pandemic, unemployment was expected to peak at 12 per cent. Today, the OBR expect unemployment to peak at 5.2 per cent. That means over 2 million fewer people out of work than previously feared.”

Inflation is a worry, of course. “Inflation in September was 3.1 per cent and is likely to rise further — with the OBR expecting CPI (consumer price index) to average 4 per cent over next year.”

As the Financial Times put it: “The UK chancellor arrived in the House of Commons on Wednesday armed with new official forecasts showing that Britain had bounced back from the Covid-19 crisis more quickly than expected, with growth of 6.5 per cent this year.

“The improved forecasts gave Sunak a Budget ‘windfall’ that he divided between higher spending on public services, help for people on low incomes and tax cuts in targeted areas, including business rates and alcohol duties.

“He insisted he could do all this while setting out new fiscal rules committing him to balance the books for day-to-day spending by 2024-25, with debt projected to fall as a share of national income in that year.”

“Investment in our infrastructure is just the first step,” Sunak stressed. “We need to do what the people of this country have always done, invent, discover, and create the ideas and technologies that will change the world. So we will also invest more in innovation.

“The UK is already a world-leader. With less than 1 per cent of the world’s population, we have 4 of the world’s top 20 universities; 14 per cent of the world’s most impactful research; and the second most Nobel Laureates.”