Last week the Chancellor set out a Budget that showed that the hard work of the British people is paying off with record levels of employment, strengthening public finances and real wages rising.
That hard work has enabled us to invest in supporting our public services- providing the £20.5bn real terms increase to the NHS budget by 23/24, and to cut income tax for 32 million people whilst freezing fuel, beer and spirits duties so people can keep more of what they earn.
The Chancellor set out how our careful fiscal management and solid economic recovery means that austerity is coming to an end.
Karen said,
“I welcome this Budget which provides a comprehensive plan to support the health service, our high streets, and ensure working people in Staffordshire Moorlands have more money in their pocket.”
Key Budget measures
- Overall investment in public services will increase in real terms over the next five years. Public spending will increase overall by 1.2 per cent in real terms each year, with precise plans to be set out at the Spending Review.
- Funding our long-term plan for the NHS. We have fully-funded the cash settlement that was set out in June – which equates to £20.5 billion more in real terms by 2023-24, and an average real growth rate in the NHS’s budget of 3.4 per cent a year.
- Fulfilling our promises on income tax one year early, so people keep more of what they earn. We will raise the Personal Allowance to £12,500 and Higher Rate Threshold to £50,000 one year early, saving a typical basic rate taxpayer £1,205 compared to 2010.
- Supporting our councils with an additional £1 billion of funding. We will support councils with £650 million for social care, £84 million for children’s social care programmes over five years and £420 million for potholes this year.
- Backing high streets by cutting business rates by a third for two years. Rates will be cut by a third for retailers with rateable value under £51,000, saving up to 90 per cent of all shops up to £8,000 each year.
- Investing an additional £1.7 billion per year to benefit working families on Universal Credit. We will increase the work allowance – the amount families can earn before losing benefits – by £1,000, worth £630 per year to those households.
- Providing £500 million more for Brexit preparedness. The Chancellor has already set aside £1.5 billion next year to prepare for all eventualities – today we are increasing that by £500 million to £2 billion.
- A 2 per cent Digital Services Tax will ensure large digital firms pay a fair share of tax to support our public services. From 2020, large social media platforms, search engines and online marketplaces will pay 2 per cent on revenues linked to UK users.
- The Royal Mint will produce a coin to mark the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. This will be available in Spring 2019.