Hammonds ‘Balanced approach’ – the key points:

 

Business

• £500m to go towards a 5G mobile network, fibre broadband and AI
• 1% increase in Benefit in Kind on diesel company cars
• Vehicle Excise Duty to go up by 1 band from 2018 on cars that don’t meet the standard

 

Northern Ireland

• Extra £650m to be available to NI executive

 

Living Wage

• From April 2018 Living Wage to increase from £7.50 to £7.83

(4.4% increase)

 

Excise duty on cigarettes & Alcohol

• Minimum duty on cigarettes will increase by 2% above retail price index
• Duty on most ciders, wines, beers and spirits will be frozen
• High strength white ciders to be increased

 

Fuel duty

• Fuel duty rise scheduled for April 2018 has been cancelled – Fuel duty will now be frozen

 

Taxation

• Personal tax free allowance to increase to £11,850 from April 2018
• Basic rate tax band to be extended – 40% tax threshold rises to £46,350 from April 2018
• 1% increase on Benefit in Kind on diesel company cars

 

 

VAT

• VAT registration threshold will not be reduced for the next two years, and will be maintained at £85,000.
• Clamp down on VAT fraud committed by on-line retailers

 

Property

First-time buyers – stamp duty abolished on homes up to £300,000.

 

Technology

 

1. • £20bn of new investment in UK knowledge-intensive industries.
   • £2.5bn from the business bank.
   • Encourage pension fund investment
   • Boost to Enterprise Investment Schemes.