Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled a raft of measures in his Spring Budget which he hoped would appeal to voters ahead of a general election this year.

Mr Hunt was on his feet for one hour five minutes in the Commons setting out his tax and spending plans which he said was a plan for 'long term growth'

Among the key policies he outlined are:

An additional cut to national insurance - a well trailed announcement to the media ahead of his speech.
The move will mean that from April 6, employee national insurance will be cut by 2p (in addition to the 2p cut made in the autumn statement), from 10% to 8%, and self-employed national insurance will be cut from 8% to 6%.
Mr Hunt said: “It means an additional £450 a year for the average employee or £350 for someone self-employed. When combined with the autumn reductions, it means 27 million employees will get an average tax cut of £900 a year and two million self-employed a tax cut averaging £650.”
More than 2.4 million working people in Scotland will benefit from the change, the government said. 

Child Benefit changes.

From April this year the threshold to receive child benefit will rise form £50,000 a year to £60,000 with benefit to be re-assessed on a household-basis by April 2026. 
Currently some child benefit is withdrawn when one parent earns more than £50,000 a year.
But Mr Hunt said this needed to be changed to take account of household income.
He said: “That means two parents earning £49,000 a year receive the benefit in full but a household earning a lot less than that does not if just one parent earns over £50,000.
“Today I set out plans to end that unfairness. Doing so requires significant reform to the tax system including allowing HMRC to collect household level information.
“We will therefore consult on moving the high-income child benefit charge to a household-based system to be introduced by April 2026."

The measure will make almost half a million families better off by an average of nearly £1,300, the chancellor said.

 

Almost £300m more for Scotland
Scottish Government will receive around £295 million additional funding through the Barnett formula, on top of the additional £1.4 billion it has received through its operation since its record £41 billion per year settlement at Spending Review 2021. The UK Government said the sum was the largest in the history of devolution.

Holyrood ministers last year announced cuts in several areas, including housing, education and enterprise agencies, to prioritise funding towards health and social care.

Deputy First Minister Shona Robison, who is also the finance secretary, said: “Today’s UK spring budget is nothing short of a betrayal of public services across the UK."

 

Boost for spaceport

The SaxaVord spaceport on Shetland has secured £10 million of funding, which will be used to complete infrastructure to prepare for the first orbital launch from European soil planned for later this year.

The venture, on Unst, has already brought in about £40 million of capital as it seeks a position at the forefront of the nascent space industry.

Frank Strang, chief executive of SaxaVord, said the UK government money was vital and added that the support would “help ensure that the UK leads the way in European space flight”.

Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, said the money raised the “exciting prospect of a first satellite launch before too long”.

Towns get regeneration cash

Three Scottish towns are to benefit with up to £20 million to invest in regeneration efforts and community projects.

Arbroath, Peterhead and Kirkwall were selected to receive cash which will be distributed over the next decade. How the cash will be used is to be decided locally. The UK government suggested that could include things such as improving safety and security measures as well as revamping high street offerings.

Alongside that, Perth and Dunfermline are to share in £12.6 million of levelling-up funding for cultural investment while the V&A museum in Dundee is receiving £2.6 million.

Investment schemes extended

The investment zones programme in Scotland is being extended from five to ten years. They were set up to give areas access to tools, such as investment incentives and tax reliefs, to help improve economic growth and reduce inequalities.

The extension will mean two areas, the Glasgow city region and the northeast of Scotland, will each have access to £160 million of funding over that period. There has also been progress on freeports with an agreement with the Scottish Government to allow tax reliefs to be claimed until September 2034.

The two Scottish green freeports are on the Firth and Forth and at the Inverness and Cromarty Firth.There was also a £200 million extension of the growth guarantee scheme, which supports small businesses across the UK, and a raising of the VAT threshold from £85,000 to £90,000.

Extending windfall tax on the profits of energy giants until 2029
The tax, which charges oil and gas companies an extra 35% on the money they make in the UK, will continue because higher oil and gas prices look likely to continue because of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The tax will however be abolished should energy prices fall back down to more normal levels. The extension is expected to raise around £1.5 billion, Mr Hunt said.
"We want to encourage investment in the North Sea so we will retain generous investment allowances for the sector," Mr Hunt said.
"We will also legislate in the Finance Bill to abolish the Energy Profits Levy should market prices fall to their historic norm for a sustained period of time.
"But because the increase in energy prices caused by the Ukraine war is expected to last longer, so too will the sector's windfall profits.
"So I will extend the sunset on the Energy Profits Levy for an additional year to 2029 raising £1.5 billion."
The move will anger the Scottish Conservatives who had called for the levy to end.

Alcohol and fuel duty freeze 
Pubs, breweries and distilleries are expected to benefit from a further freeze to alcohol duty until February 2025 - saving consumers money on their favourite drink. The UK Government said the average car driver will save £50 this year as the 5p cut and freeze to fuel duty is maintained until March 2025.

Non-dom regime

Tax breaks for non-domiciled residents, those who are resident here, but not domiciled here for tax purposes, have been abolished. The measure will raise £2.7 billion a year by 2028. Under present rules, foreign nationals who are domiciled abroad but live in Britain do not have to pay tax on their foreign income for up to 15 years.

Change to VAT for small and medium sized businesses

These enteprises will be supported to invest and grow through a £200 million extension of the Growth Guarantee Scheme, helping 11,000 small businesses across the UK access finance and an increase in the VAT registration threshold from £85,000 to £90,000 which will take around 28,000 small businesses UK-wide out of paying VAT altogether.

State of the economy

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has forecast that the economy will expand by 0.8%  this year, 1.9 % next year and 2%  in 2026. That is higher than the forecasts of 0.7%, 1.4% and 2%  growth, respectively, in November. The OBR also forecast that inflation will fall below 2% his year, from a level of 4% at present.