Chancellor unveils Autumn Budget

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has unveiled his Autumn Budget in the House of Commons.

He has announced that benefits will rise by 6.7 per cent, which was the inflation rate in September. The increase will apply to working-age benefits such as means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit, and disability benefits.

Local Housing Allowance will increase to the 30th percentile of local market rates, it is anticipated that this will give 1.6 million households an average of £800 of support next year.

Hunt set a target for the public sector to increase productivity by at least 0.5 per cent next year.

£50 million has been announced to increase the number of apprentices in engineering and other key growth sectors.

There will be reforms to the planning system in an attempt to enable faster planning applications. Local authorities will be able to recover the full costs of major business planning applications, in return for being required to meet guaranteed faster timelines.

The chancellor also announced funding and tax breaks for investment zones and Freeports. Financial incentives for Investment Zones and Freeports will be extended from five to ten years.

Class 2 National Insurance will be abolished, which is expected to save the average self-employed worker, £192 a year.

From January, the main employee National Insurance rate will be cut by 2 percentage points from 12% to 10%. The chancellor said this will help 27 million people and someone on the average salary of £35,000 will save over £450 a year.

Benefits will be stopped for those not looking for work. If, after seeking a job for 18 months, a claimant has still not found a job, they will have to take part in a mandatory work placement, to improve their skills and employability. Those choosing not to engage with the work search process for six months will see their benefits stopped.

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