On Wednesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer presented his Budget to MPs and as always there is a lot of detail to go through.
There is not enough space in this update to repeat every item or detail from the budget. Yet you can read the Chancellor’s statement and the response of other MPs, including the Leader of the Opposition, by clicking here.
The highlights were:
- Income tax personal tax allowance rises to £11,850.
- The National Living Wage rising to £7.83.
- Stamp duty land tax abolished for first time buyers on homes up to £300,000.
- The VAT registration threshold remains unchanged at £85,000, however, it has been frozen for 2 years from April 2018.
- Further measures to target multi-national businesses making sales in the UK that are not paying sufficient in corporation tax.
- Fuel Duty Frozen for the eight consecutive year.
- Extending the £1,000 discount for pubs (with a rateable value of less than £100,000) to March 2019.
You can read the full Budget Papers on the Government website by clicking here.
On Wednesday afternoon I spoke in the Budget Debate and highlighted a number of areas of interest to the bay. You can listen to what I said by clicking here.
Finally a few people have queried why particular areas where listed in the Budget, yet not ours. These are mostly areas where there is a devolution deal in place, which makes it all the more important the proposed deal for Devon and Somerset makes progress over the coming months.