10 takeaways from ‘snoozefest’ Budget 2017

Hammond said: “Long ago, our competitors in Germany and the United States realised that to compete in the fast moving global economy, you have to link skills to jobs”. Which is great news if you like Budgets, but bad if you’re trying to understand what’s happening.

“Science and engineering organisations have been highlighting shortages in technically-skilled staff for many years”.

Self-employed folk are to be slapped with additional National Insurance contributions, Chancellor Phillip Hammond announced today.

The amount paid by employees, rather than those who work for themselves, is a disparity in the tax system that needs addressed, according to Mr Hammond. It’ll also be his last after he confirmed last year that the Budget and Autumn Statement would be scrapped and combined into one central Treasury announcement in October each year.

The BCF will provide £105m to councils this year, £825m in 2018-19, and £1.5bn in 2019-20. Productivity performance also varies significantly between regions, with London well ahead of the rest of the country – output per hour is 39 per cent lower in Northern Ireland compared with the capital and 34 per cent lower in the West Midlands and Yorkshire.

Students in further education or technical college will also be eligible for maintenance loans.

Outlining the outlook for debt, the Chancellor said it would rise to 86.6% of GDP in 2017, peaking at 88.8% next year, 1.4 percentage points lower than forecast in November, before falling to 88.5%, 86.9% and 83% in subsequent years, reaching 79.8% in 2021/22.

With many of our customers already struggling to manage skyrocketing rents, there should have been more focus on business rates, as we should be looking at ways to help them thrive and succeed in this time of economic uncertainty, not penalise them further because of the geographic location of their business.

“Increasing the tax burden on plumbers, cleaners and musicians, while decreasing corporation tax isn’t the right move”.

Phillip Hammond has said the Government is building a “stronger, fairer Britain” in his first Budget as chancellor. Listening and responding he announced that small businesses will benefit from this budget, but the measures he has announced are a bit of a damp squib.

However, speaking today in the Commons, Hammond outlined three measures created to offset wider concerns over the business rates revaluation regime, none of which stand to directly address the drastic increase on properties with solar.

In addition, £300m will be allocated to local authorities for a discretionary fund for “hard cases in their area”. The rate was projected to drop to 17 percent in 2020.

Up until now, landlords have been able to deduct all their mortgage interest (and other costs associated with a property) from rental income before calculating their tax bill.

An existing entitlement to free transport for pupils eligible for free school meals, or whose parents claim the maximum working tax credit payments, will be extended to cover selective schools, as announced by the government yesterday.