𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Budget introduced a fuel duty freeze for the sixteenth year.

The Government remains committed to the triple lock, for now, as older state pensioners on the basic pension will receive a £374 annual boost. The Chancellor also confirmed that pensioners relying exclusively on the DWP state pension will be exempt from paying income tax, even as payments exceed the frozen tax threshold.

Mr Healey announced affordable housing funding of more than £1billion, alongside £432million to tackle rough sleeping.

A temporary bank tax hike was confirmed to fund energy support, increasing the bank surcharge by an extra 3% on top of the existing corporation tax rate. This reverses a previous Conservative tax cut, drawing praise from unions but raising concerns from City leaders about stifling investment.

The starting threshold for small business rates relief will rise from £12,000 to £18,000 to protect high street shops. This will be funded by increased taxes on higher-stakes gambling machines.

The UK will establish a new multilateral defence mechanism with Finland, Poland, and the Netherlands. The Chancellor also said that he is “getting work under way” to reach spending of 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, and will set out how he will hit that target at next year’s Spending Review.

The Chancellor scrapped previous plans to slash the Cash ISA allowance to £12,000 for savers under 65, maintaining the £20,000 limit protects younger savers who prefer cash security and spares banks and building societies from a complex wave of anti-avoidance regulations and red tape.