Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced his first Budget. Read the key points from his announcement here;
Taxation
- Abolition of the pension lifetime allowance
- Tax-free yearly allowance for pensions to rise from £40,000 to £60,000
- The 5p cut to fuel duty on petrol and diesel to stay for another year
- Alcohol taxes to rise in line with inflation from August, with new reliefs for beer, cider and wine sold in pubs
- Tax on tobacco and hand-rolling tobacco to increase by 2% more than inflation and 6% more than inflation respectively
Corporation Tax
- Rate of corporation tax for businesses with taxable profits over £25,000 to increase from 19% to 25%
- Companies with profits between £50,000 and £250,000 to pay between 19% and 25%
- Companies with profits under £50,000 will continue to pay at 19%
Energy
- Government subsidies limiting typical household energy bills to £2,500 a year extended until the end of June 2023
- Energy charges for prepayment meters to be brought into line with prices for customers paying by direct debit
- 363m to help leisure centres with rising swimming pool heating costs and investment to become more energy efficient
Childcare
- 30 hours of free childcare for working parents in England to cover 1 and 2 year olds
- Families on universal credit to receive childcare support up front instead of in arrears, with the per child cap raised to £951
Economy
- Office for Budget Responsibility predicts the UK will avoid recession in 2023, but the economy will shrink by 0.2%
- Growth of 1.8% predicted for 2024, 2.5% for 2025 and 2.1% in 2026
- UK inflation rate predicted to fall to 2.9 by the end of this year
