My take on the best bits 1) Three million workers are about to get a pay rise, thanks to the rise in the National Living Wage, bringing it up to £12.21 an hour, whilst those aged 18 to 20 will go up by 16.3% to £10 an hour. Every full-time worker aged 21 and older will earn an extra £1,400 a year! 2) The day-to-day NHS budget will increase by £22.6bn. There will also be a further £3.1bn investment in its capital budget for facilities and equipment. This will facilitate 40,000 extra hospital appointments and procedures every week and will include £1.5bn for new hospital beds. 3) VAT will be introduced on private school fees from January 2025 and schools' business rates relief will be removed from April 2025. Some 500 old state schools that are not fit for purpose will be rebuilt at a total cost of £1.4bn. There will be an extra £300m for school maintenance each year, which will cover dealing with concerns about reinforced aerated autoclaved concrete (RAAC). The budget for free school breakfast clubs will be tripled to £30m in 2025 and 2026. The core budget for schools will also rise by £2.3bn. 4) Renewing the bus fare cap, ensuring ticket prices do not sky-rocket. This scheme was under threat, after the Tories failed to provide long term funding for it. Labour has fixed that, securing the future of quality public transport. 5) £1 Billion has been allocated to the Household Support Fund, which is the pot of money that councils use to support residents who are struggling with their bills. Fantastic news so Councils can continue to provide this vital relief. 6) A 0% rise on income tax or national insurance, promise kept. 7) Over 112,000 former mineworkers will receive £1.5 billion that was kept from their pensions, a 32% boost. 8) Good news for hospitality with draught duty cut by 1.7%. 9) Inheritance tax frozen for another 2 years. 10) Fuel Duty frozen for another year, with the existing 5p cut maintained. No higher taxes at the petrol pump. 11) Carers Allowance weekly limit raised in biggest boost to benefit since 1976! This will mean an extra £81.90 a week for those newly eligible. 12) A new fair repayment rate will mean Universal Credit claimants who have been accidentally overpaid will only have to pay back 15% of their allowance each month, falling from 25%. This means a gain of around £420 a year for roughly 1.2 million of the poorest households. 13) An increase in employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,000 will mean 65,000 businesses won't pay any national insurance at all next year. It will also mean more than a million businesses will pay the same or less than they did previously. 14) Local government will receive funding worth "at least" £600m for social care. 15) An investment of £5bn in housing, which will increase the affordable homes programme to a budget of £3.1bn. 16) In addition, £1bn will be spent on the removal of dangerous cladding, implementing the findings of the Grenfell inquiry. 17) The HS2 rail link to Birmingham will now go to London Euston, following speculation it would only go to Old Oak Common in west London. 18) Windfall Tax on obscene profits from oil and gas companies will increase to 38% until March 2030. 19) There will be a commitment of £3bn a year for Ukraine for "as long as it takes" to end the war there. 20) Public finances will be in surplus, rather than in deficit, by the 2027-2028 financial year reaching stability 2 years earlier than planned. 21) The Tories put in place an the income tax threshold freeze until the financial year 2028-29, Labour have abolished this freeze and pledged that after this date personal tax thresholds will be uprated in line with inflation! More take home pay for us all.
Credit where its due, the wording of this one to make it look like Labour have done something positive is a linguistic treat. That's what was due to happen anyway. If the rates were frozen until 2028-29, by definition, it means that after that point, they aren't.
I reckon the budget is ok, and could have been a lot worse. I don’t like what they have done to farmers. And I reckon it was going to be much worse. But public opinion forced a lighter version.
Trains are garbage. Penistone line Huddersfield to Sheffield is one an hour and they are currently in the middle of a period where 5 out of 7 are cancelled.
I think they have been using the classic tactic of deliberately briefing out lots of worst case scenarios so that when it came to it, people end up having a positive 'Not as bad as I thought' view. We are all played like a fiddle in that way. It definitely could have been worse. But there are elements that are very bad. I agree about the inheritance tax on farms issue and think there will be such pushback on that that it will soon be reversed. It is an appalling mistake. In general, although there can be lots of discussion about what needs to be raised and what needs to be spent and where, I believe that for entirely political reasons, they have focused too much on hammering business instead of individuals and its going to have consequences for business investment and employment. Its telling that, after all the rhetoric about aiming for growth, we are forecast to grow at the same sluggish levels throughout the life of the govt as if not a penny of it had been spent. You can't tax your way to economic growth. A lot of SME's are going to really struggle with the multiple whammy heaped upon them. There are some really strange decisions such as leaving fuel duty at the same level. Why? Easy win that one, everyone expected it, fuel is historically cheap right now and they are supposed to be incentivising the switch to EV. And 1p off draught beer - why? What on earth was the point? Missed opportunity to reform vehicle excise duty, which badly needs it. But the biggest take away from it for me is the fact that they outright lied pre election. Bare faced and repeatedly. They said "our plans are fully costed and there are no plans to increase tax other than in the specific areas outlined in the manifesto". They stood in leaders debates and sat in interviews and said this over and over. And it was a total lie. How do we allow this level of deceit in our political discussion?
The Tories have run the state sector into the ground for 14 years and trashed the economy meaning the treasury's cupboards empty and worse than that the Tories commited to things but didn't have the cash to fund them. The people doing the moaning because there's a bill to pay to turn things round are the ones who do the most whining when they can't.get doctors appts or their trains cancelled etc etc etc. The money needs to be spent it needs to come from somewhere pay your bill and be glad we will have a functioning NHS etc again like we had before 2010.
The 1p off draught beer is designed to help protect pubs as opposed to supermarkets , prior to this cut..draught, canned and bottled attracted the same rate of duty. 1p isn't much but HM Customs & Revenue will monitor the effects.... hopefully it's just the start.
I'm not sure I've read you right there. If allowances were to be frozen till 28/29. And labour have removed that. I'm guessing meaning they may increase over the coming years. Then after 28/29 increase in inflation rises is not summat that the tories indicated. Or are you saying labour have kept em frozen till that year ?
What I am saying is that the tories froze them until 28/29. Meaning the inferred outcome that after that point, they are no longer frozen and the allowances would go up. By how much was never outlined, but they would by assumption go up. What Selby said is that Labour indicated that they will keep this freeze and abolish the freeze after 28/29 and they will go up in line with inflation. But this is a meaningless phrase, abolishing a freeze after its end date is just something that is already inferred.
I'm confused by that too. Not read anywhere any detail of whether they are going to increase prior to the 28/29 freeze lift. So if they have removed the freeze, by how much are the thresholds going up?
Some good stuff in the budget - undoubtedly. If the Tories had still been in power things would have declined further and there would be no potential uptick in public services whatsoever. So you're right, in my opinion, to praise the good things. However, also in my opinion, the budget as an overall package for developing long-term growth, re-balancing inequalities and transforming the infrastructure is not bold enough. There is a deliberate lack of an attempt to increase tax on those individuals and particularly businesses that can afford it. Corporation tax should have gone up on businesses with big turnovers but the main tax hit will be on small to medium sized businesses who can't really afford the hit without compromising on staff or prices. Its the wrong call for me. It also plays into the hands of those who say Labour can't be trusted on tax because they'd boxed themselves in to the stupid 'no taxes on working people' mantra and then raised taxes by 40 billion. I agree that taxes should be raised but they've not appeared honest here and it will play out. I'd also like to know what Reeves has in store in about 3 years time. She's redefined the measure for borrowing and used it to some extent here but what leeway has she got? The Government has done some good things here but the gamble on growth is still a gamble for me and over-reliant on big businesses. If the economic growth doesn't come as anticipated what happens in 4/5 years time both economically and electorally?
Excellent! The Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she was making £25m available for work to maintain coal tips in Wales during 2025-26. Labour Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said that shortly after the 58th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster “it is fitting that we have committed £25m to make coal tips safe".
Is that what he indicated. And I'm away, so not read into the detail at mo. He hasn't said after 28/29 to my reckoning. But said abolished it with no date attached. Over to you Selby. But tbh. The budget in my view on the whole seems more presentable than all the scare mongers predicted. And lets be honest you are making assumptions whether right or wrong on what tories had in mind after that yr. At least labour, how I read that have a plan in place. The Tories are running scared as once labour get to grips hopefully with the economy. They will be a party driven out overtaken by others. No longer thought of a party for the masses but the few. Allus thus.
Far too early to tell. I think the population generally accept that public services have been under funded and need more money. But there are a lot of pitfalls ahead based on the decisions made in this budget. For example, the NI raise on employers is pencilled in as raising 25bn. But multiple commentators are suggesting that unintended consequences could have a damaging impact on that number, ie lower wages, lower employment (not forgetting that those missing extra employees would have paid income tax and NI themselves), companies folding, all combine to mean that the number actually raised could fall 10bn short or more according to some projections. And if projected income falls short, and they come back with further huge rises in year 2 or year 3, and people continue to suffer with no growth in the economy and no rise in their living standards, then things will quickly turn sour. People are going to need to see real and lasting improvements for their money. But for example, the NHS will never have enough money - any extra is always welcome but it could consume the entire public purse if it was allowed to. Alongside money, it will only improve in decent measure with fundamental reform. It's been said before that Labour always eventually run out of other people's money. Like I say further up, you can't tax your way to growth. We need investment in public services and its to be welcomed but at the same time, people will want results. Time will tell.
Hopefully so But one thing is for sure. The tories have failed miserably in their privatisation of utilities. And falling on the taxpayer to make up the squandered Billions in inefficiency and profits to shareholders, paying for extreme incompetence. The reason the NHS is on its arse is obvious. For more of the same get em back in power. Conning the working class. For those who want a tory government Ragged Trousered philanthropist. Read and weep.
The trouble with our country is that we think that if we chuck money at any given problem, then it solves it. Wrong. Organize it properly. Just like a decent football team. Get more out of it. Get rid of the dead wood (even DC said that today I believe). Reward and promote.
