• CPI rates will be 2.7% at the end of the year before returning to target “in the medium term”, which remains at 2%. • The UK’s borrowing will fall to 1.1% of GDP within five years. • Public sector net debt to fall to 67% of GDP by 2015/2016, compared to increases proposed by the previous government. • Unemployment to peak at 8.1% this year before falling back to 6.15 by 2015. • Most of the deficit reduction will come from spending cuts. 77% of the reduction will come from savings while 23% will come from tax rises. • George Osborne says the structural deficit will be plugged by 2015/16 and is set to be cleared one year early. • The Civil list will be subject to the same audit by the National Audit Office and will be frozen at £7.9m annually. • An extra £17bn in savings in public services has been found, equivalent to a 25% across the board cut. Final details will be in the spending review released on 20 October. • Public sector pay will be frozen for two years, but the 1.7m people earning up to £21,000 will receive a pay rise of £250 a year. • The small companies rate will be cut to 20%. • Housing Benefit to be reduced by £1.8bn by the end of Parliament. • Corporation tax will fall to 24% by 2014, dropping 1% a year. • Tax relief for the video games industry has been repealed. • Plans to increase broadband access across the country will be funded by the private sector and not through a broadband levy • The threshold for employers National Insurance Contributions will be increased. • Employers outside of London and the South East will be exempt from National Insurance Contributions for the first £5,000 up to ten employees. • About £2bn will be raised via a new banking levy charged to large banks. • The standard rate of VAT will rise to 20% from 17.5% on 4 January 2011, bringing in £13bn a year of extra revenue. • The increase in cider duty will be reversed at the end of the month • Duties on alcohol, tobacco and petrol will remain the same. • There will be a review of oil prices in time for the next Budget aimed at stabilising pump prices. A further announcement on aviation tax by the next Budget is also expected to change a tax structure which charges each passenger to a per flight tax. • Personal tax allowance to rise to £7,475 in April, making 23 million taxpayers an extra £170 a year better off and taking nearly a million people out of income tax. • Capital Gains Tax stays at 18% for standard rate taxpayers but from midnight, those paying the higher rate will see CGT rise to 28% • The chancellor has announced that while the CGT rate for entrepreneurs’ relief will remain at 10%, the limit is to increase from £2m to £5m. • Capital allowances are cut to mitigate more a generous corporation tax regime. • Allowances for plant and machinery operations are reduced from 20%-18% and from 10%-8% for longer lived assets. • Pensions will be re-linked to earnings, the state pension will increase in line with the consumer price index or 2.5% whichever is greater. |