Autumn 2021 Budget: At a glance: Some hope for Low income families and businesses after Covid-19 from Chancellor Rishi

Sunak. Universal Credit Benefits:

• Universal Credit taper rate cut from 63p to 55p letting 1.7million Brits keep more as they earn by December 1 at latest

• And he raised the Universal Credit work allowance by £500 a year – with both measures to take force by December 1.

Wages:

• Minimum wage for over-23s to rise from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour in April 2022

• One-year public sector pay freeze to end for 5.5million workers – but no guarantee wages will rise above inflation or departments will get new money to fund them

Tax:

• National Insurance Contributions on pay over £9,568 rise from 12% to 13.25%

Businesses and technology:

• Half-price business rates for one year – up to a maximum of £110,000 – for firms in retail, hospitality and leisure

Autumn Budget 2021: Key points

State of the economy and public finances

  • Inflation in September was 3.1% and is likely to rise to average 4% over next year, OBR says
  • UK economy forecast to return to pre-Covid levels by 2022
  • Annual growth set to rebound by 6.5% this year, followed by 6% in 2022
  • Unemployment expected to peak at 5.2% next year, lower than 11.9% previously predicted
  • Wages have grown in real terms by 3.4% since February 2020
  • Borrowing as a percentage of GDP is forecast to fall from 7.9% this year to 3.3% next year
  • Borrowing as a percentage of GDP will then fall in the following four years to 1.5%
  • Foreign aid spending projected to return to 0.7% of GDP by 2024-25

Taxation and wages

  • Universal Credit taper rate will be cut by 8% no later than 1 December, bringing it down from 63% to 55% – allowing claimants to keep more of the payment
  • Confirmation business rates to be retained and reformed
  • A 50% business rates discount for the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors in England in 2022-23, up to a maximum of £110,000
  • Planned rise in fuel duty to be cancelled amid the highest pump prices in eight years
  • Consultation on an online sales tax
  • National Living Wage to increase next year by 6.6%, to £9.50 an hour

Government spending

  • Whitehall departments to receive rise in overall spending, totalling £150bn over the course of this Parliament
  • Funding will rise by an average of £4.6bn for Scottish Government, £2.5bn for Welsh Government, and £1.6bn for Northern Ireland Executive
  • Levelling Up Fund will mean £1.7bn invested in local areas across the UK
  • Government backing projects in Aberdeen, Bury, Burnley, Lewes, Clwyd South, Stoke-on-Trent, Ashton under Lyne, Doncaster, South Leicester, Sunderland and West Leeds
  • Extra £2.2bn for courts, prisons and probation services, including funding to clear the courts backlog
  • Tax relief for museums and galleries will be extended for two years, to March 2024
  • Core science funding to rise to £5.9bn a year by 2024-25
  • £6bn of funding to help tackle NHS backlogs
  • £7bn for transport projects in areas including Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and South Yorkshire

Children and education

  • Schools to get an extra £4.7bn by 2024-25
  • There will be nearly £2bn of new funding to help schools and colleges to recover from the pandemic
  • Schools funding to return to 2010 levels in real terms – an equivalent per pupil cash increase of more than £1,500
  • £300m will be spent on a “Start for Life” parenting programmes, with an additional £170m by 2024-25 promised for childcare
  • A UK-wide numeracy programme will be set-up to help improve basic maths skills among adults

Air travel

  • Flights between airports in the UK nations will be subject to a new lower rate of Air Passenger Duty from April 2023
  • Financial support for English airports to be extended for a further six months
  • From April 2023, new ultra long haul band in Air Passenger Duty for flights of over 5,500 miles introduced

Alcohol

  • Planned rise in the duty on spirits, wine, cider and beer cancelled
  • Simplification of alcohol duties will see the number of rates drop from 15 to six
  • Stronger red wines, fortified wines, and high-strength ciders will see a small increase in their rates
  • Rates on many lower alcohol drinks including rose wine, fruit ciders, liqueurs, lower strength beers and wines to fall
  • All sparkling wines to pay same duty as still wines of equivalent strength
  • Lower duty on draught beer and cider from containers over 40 litres will cut the rate by 5%

Housing

  • £24bn earmarked for housing, including £11.5bn for up to 180,000 affordable homes, with brownfield sites targeted for development
  • 4% levy will be placed on property developers with profits over £25m to help create a £5bn fund to remove unsafe cladding
  • £640m a year to address rough sleeping and homelessness

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *