Rishi Sunak delivered his third Budget as Chancellor to the Commons earlier today where he announced a series of measures for business across reforms, rates and incentives, while also reducing the universal credit taper.
The publication of a long-awaited review of business rates brought with it a series of measures to adjust the system. This included a 50% cut to rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in 2022 to 2023, up to a cap of £110,000.
Additionally, the rates multiplier will be frozen for 2022 to 2023, which the Treasury says will save businesses in England £4.6 billion over the next five years.
The Chancellor also pledged a major increase in public spending amid higher than expected economic growth, with the OBR expecting the British economy to expand 6. 5% this year – and recover to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.
Rishi Sunak delivered his third Budget as Chancellor to the Commons earlier today where he announced a series of measures for business across reforms, rates and incentives, while also reducing the universal credit taper.
The publication of a long-awaited review of business rates brought with it a series of measures to adjust the system. This included a 50% cut to rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in 2022 to 2023, up to a cap of £110,000. Additionally, the rates multiplier will be frozen for 2022 to 2023, which the Treasury says will save businesses in England £4.6 billion over the next 5five years.
Other reforms included the introduction of a new investment relief for green technology, an improvement relief for businesses expanding their properties, and a move to three-yearly revaluations from 2023, instead of five years as it stands now. Taken together, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the measures announced in the Budget amounted to a £7bn cut to business rates.
The headline rates of tax relief will be temporarily increased for theatres, museums, orchestras and galleries across the UK from October 27, 2021 to March 31, 2024, increasing the relief organisations can claim as they invest in new productions and exhibitions.
The annual investment allowance will remain at its current level of £1 million until March 31, 2023, instead of ending on December 31, 2021 as planned.
The allowance, which allows companies to deduct qualifying capital allowances from their profits before tax, previously stood at £200,000 but was raised from January 1, 2019 onwards to encourage investment.
The Chancellor also announced plans to reform R&D tax reliefs, by including data and cloud costs as qualifying expenditure, as well as refocusing the reliefs on activity in the UK.
Details on these changes have not yet been released, but the Government says these will form part of its “further tax administration and maintenance announcements” later in the autumn.
From 1 April 2022, the National Living Wage will increase by 6.6% to £9.50 an hour. Young people and apprentices will also see pay increases as the National Minimum Wage rates will also increase next year.
On average, people earning minimum wage can expect to see an extra £1,074 a year before tax. The freeze on public sector pay will also end on April 1 next year, paving the way for around 5.7 million people to get a pay rise.
The chancellor said public sector workers, like nurses, teachers and police officers, will see “fair and affordable pay rises” across the whole Spending Review period – within the next year.
The decision on how much extra money public sector workers will get is not due to be made until next year, once the pay review bodies have made their recommendations.
People working and claiming Universal Credit will soon take home more money, after the Chancellor announced the taper rate will be reduced from 63% to 55%.
Mr Sunak said: “The Universal Credit taper withdraws support as people work more hours. The rate is currently 63%, so for every extra £1 someone earns, their Universal Credit is reduced by 63p.
“Let us be in no doubt: this is a tax on work – and a high rate of tax at that.”
It will be welcome news after the £20 per week UC uplift introduced during the pandemic was removed – a move which received great backlash. The taper change will come into effect by December 1.
Fuel duty rates will be frozen UK-wide for the 12th consecutive year.
Alcohol duties will be frozen across the board for the third year running saving consumers £3 billion.
The new Health and Social Care Levy, along with an increase to the rates of dividend tax, will raise around £13 billion per year for spending on health and social care across the UK. This enables significant further funding for the NHS, for the government’s reforms to social care, public health and prevention programmes, and investment in training the workforce of the future.
The Budget confirmed an additional £4.7 billion by 2024-25 for the core schools budget in England, over and above the SR19 settlement for schools in 2022-23, as well as £2.6 billion of capital funding for new school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and £1.8 billion of additional money for education recovery – in addition to the £1.4 billion announced in June 2021.
Investment of £11.5 billion will also be made available in the Affordable Homes Programme in England from 2021-26 to help build up to 180,000 new affordable homes – with 65% of funding for homes outside London.
The Government announced plans to modernise the UK’s Tonnage Tax regime to ensure that the shipping industry remains highly competitive in the global market.
The first Freeport tax sites will be in Humber, Teesside and Thames, and those Freeports will be able to begin initial operations from November.
A new UK Global Talent Network will work with businesses and research institutes to identify and attract the best global talent in key science and tech sectors.
The new £1.4 billion Global Britain Investment Fund will ensure that economic opportunities are spread more evenly across the UK by supporting investment in the UK’s life sciences, offshore wind and automotive manufacturing sectors.
A fund of £11 billion of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) was announced, including doubling the UK’s international climate finance to £11.6bn between 2021-22 and 2025-26 and £430 million to the Global Partnership for Education to help to educate young people, particularly for girls (our largest ever contribution)
Furthermore, £703 million will be committed over the next three years to improve the safety, security and efficiency of the UK border.
Sunak also confirmed eligibility criteria for the new Scale-Up Visa, to help make it quicker and easier for fast-growing businesses to bring in highly-skilled individuals.
Meanwhile, a 50% cut in Air Passenger Duty for flights between airports in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was announced – which is set to benefit around nine million passengers in 2023-24 and will be delivered via a new domestic band.
A new rate of Air Passenger Duty of £91 will also come into play on flights of 5,500 miles or more. These reforms apply across the UK except for the direct long-haul rates for Northern Ireland which are devolved.
The alcohol duty system will be overhauled to make it fairer and more straightforward, with drinks taxed in proportion to their alcohol content and duty rules simplified.
Not included in the speech, but an important announcement nonetheless, was a change to property payment window for capital gains tax.
The deadline by which UK residents must report and pay any capital gains tax on the sale of residential property has increased to 60 days after the completion date, up from 30 days.
This takes immediate effect, applying as of 27 October 2021.
This Budget’s ‘rabbit from a hat’ came at the end of the speech – an 8% reduction to the taper rate for Universal Credit.
People working and claiming Universal Credit will soon take home more money, after the chancellor announced the taper rate will be reduced from 63% to 55%.
Mr Sunak said: “The Universal Credit taper withdraws support as people work more hours. The rate is currently 63%, so for every extra £1 someone earns, their Universal Credit is reduced by 63p.”Let us be in no doubt: this is a tax on work – and a high rate of tax at that.”
It will be welcome news after the £20 per week UC uplift introduced during the pandemic was removed – a move which received great backlash.
The taper change will come into effect by December 1. The measure will allow claimants to keep an additional 8p for every £1 they earn.
The national living wage will increase from 1 April 2022, from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour- an increase of 6.6%.
This increase was already agreed by the Government ahead of the Budget, in response to proposals from the Low Pay Commission.
Key Points
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has encouraged a wave of business and expert reaction after delivering his Autumn Budget today, in which he committed to higher spending and tax cuts.
Here’s what some industry insiders and tax experts had to say.
Business rates
In his speech, Sunak revealed his plan for business rates in England, which included:
Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), lauded the reforms as “good news for many firms”, commenting:
“This will provide much needed relief for businesses across the country, giving many firms renewed confidence to invest and grow.”
Less positively, editorial and research fellow at the free market think-tank Institute of Economic Affairs, Len Shackleton, described the changes to business rates as a “plaster solution”, saying:
“The Chancellor recognises that business rates need fundamental reform, but as yet there is no clear view about how he plans to do this.
“A long-term solution must be in place before this new relief expires.”
Air passenger duty
On the 50% cut to air passenger duty for flights within the UK from 2023/24, head of the environmental justice commission at the Institute for Public Policy Research, Luke Murphy, described the move as an “own goal” for the Government as it prepares to host the upcoming climate summit COP26.
While duties for domestic flights will be cut, duties for long-haul overseas ones will be raised to £91 on flights of 5,500 miles or more. Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said:
”We’ve always said it doesn’t make sense for those travelling overseas to pay less in air passenger duty than those who choose to support UK holiday destinations. Today’s reforms to the levy mark a victory for the common sense.”
Minimum wage
The Government has also increased the national living wage by 6.6% from £8.91 to £9.50, on which Jane Gratton, head of people policy at the BCC, said:
“There is a limit to how much more firms can continue to absorb rising costs before they have to raise their own prices adding to inflationary pressures. The best way to sustainably increase wages is to help firms boost their skills and productivity.”
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