What happened in the spring 2020 Budget?
On Wednesday 11th March 2020 Rishi Sunak delivered his first budget as chancellor. Here are the key takeaways from his one hour and three minute speech concerning personal finances and housing - some of our core focuses here at The Nottingham.
Personal taxation and finances
- The threshold for National Insurance contributions tax is set to rise from £8,632 to £9,500 which should save people just over £100 a year.
- The "Tampon Tax" VAT on sanitary products is to be completely scrapped.
- Statuatory Sick Pay will be paid to everyone who self-isolates, even if they don't have symptoms of Coronavirus.
- From 6th April 2020, parents will be able to save £9,000 in Junior ISAs as opposed to the £4,368 limit that currently applies. The same limit will apply to older child trust funds.
Housing
- The Affordable Homes Programme will extend with a new, multi-year settlement of £12bn and over £1bn of allocations from the Housing Infrastructure Fund which will see almost 70,000 new homes built in high-demand areas of the UK.
Other notable outcomes
- Fuel duty continues to be frozen for the 10th year running.
- Duties on beer, wine, cider and spirits are also to be frozen.
- Entrepreneurs' Relief will be retained but the lifetime allowance will be reduced from £10m to £1m.
- Economy predicted to grow by 1.1% this year without taking into account the impact of Coronavirus which has a £12bn plan in place to respond to this including a £5bn emergency response fund to support the NHS.
- Inflation forecast stands at 1.4% this year and will increase to 1.8% in 2021-2022.
- Plastic packaging tax to come into force from April 2022.
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