THE Chancellor will provide more than £400 million of additional support for the badly hit culture sector in his Budget on Wednesday, as a Tory grandee warned taxes would “have to go up”.

Rishi Sunak is preparing to hand out £408m to help museums, theatres and galleries in England to reopen once coronavirus restrictions start to ease in the coming months.

He has also announced a plan to allow pub goers to bid for £250,000 grants to take over their struggling local to save it from closure, witgh a total of £150m up for grabs.

In a slew of pre-Budget teasers, Treasury officials also said Mr Sunak will use his fiscal package on Wednesday to give a “significant chunk” of a £300m sports recovery package to cricket as fans prepare to return to stadiums this summer and grassroots players return to the field.

The announcements come as a former Conservative Party leader said taxes would have to be hiked as part of Britain’s Covid recovery following 12 months of heavy public borrowing to pay for furlough and other Government support efforts.

William Hague, who now sits in the House of Lords, said: “It pains me to say, after spending much of my life arguing for lower taxes, that we have reached the point where at least some business and personal taxes have to go up.”

The former foreign secretary said those who opposed some form of tax rises in the current climate were buying into “dangerous illusions”.

But with rumours swirling about possible tax increases, the Prime Minister was keen to dismiss the idea of new green levies penalising consumers and motorists.

Boris Johnson said he planned to use the UK’s ambition of being carbon neutral by 2050 to “generate high quality, high skill, high wage jobs” and not to slap higher taxes on carbon-intensive foods such as meat, and it was also reported the Budget will see fuel duty frozen for the tenth year running.

In preparation for Wednesday’s Budget, the Treasury on Monday evening revealed a series of funding packages targeting support at the beleaguered culture, sport and pub trades which have seen profits and activity knocked since social distancing was introduced at the start of the Covid outbreak last year.

Mr Sunak is expected to pump an extra £300m into the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, as part of the measures.

National museums and cultural bodies will also receive £90m to help keep them afloat until they can open their doors on May 17 at the earliest and £18.8m will be provided for community cultural projects.

The Chancellor said: “Throughout the crisis we have done everything we can to support our world-renowned arts and cultural industries, and it’s only right that we continue to build on our historic package of support for the sector.

“This industry is a significant driver of economic activity, employing more than 700,000 people in jobs across the UK, and I am committed to ensuring the arts are equipped to captivate audiences in the months and years to come.”

Mr Sunak will also use the Budget to deliver a £150m Community Ownership Fund to allow pub goers to bid for up to £250,000 to save their favourite local.

The fund, due to open for applications in the summer, is designed to help community groups to take over struggling pubs or other community assets in their area in order to keep them going.