29 March 2024, 15:45
By Furniture News Mar 08, 2017

Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers Spring Budget to Parliament

Today, Chancellor Philip Hammond presented his Spring Budget - the last one of its kind to be delivered - to Parliament. The UK economy's growth is said to have increased last year, and employment has reached a record high. The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecasted that the UK economy will grow by 2% this year, then more slowly in 2018, but pick up again in 2021. 

The Chancellor spoke about reducing borrowing and getting the UK's public finances back under control, with the figures stating that Britain is in around £1.7 trillion of debt. Borrowing will be cut down by almost three quarters. 

£500m worth of investment has been put in place for technical education for 16 to 19 year olds including routes such as construction or digital, in addition to £300m towards new academic research placements, focusing on areas such as science, technology, engineering and maths. The government will also offer loans for students undertaking higher-level technical courses at National Colleges and Institutes of Technology. 

Good news came for small businesses under the VAT threshold, with the announcement that they will have an extra year to prepare for Making Tax Digital - where businesses will be required to use digital software to keep tax records and update HMRC quarterly.

In addition, £435m will be provided to support businesses affected by the recent changes to business rates relief. According to the Chancellor, no small business coming out of small business rates relief will pay more than £600 more in rates this year than they did in the last financial year. Some of the funding will go to local authorities to then be distributed to businesses most affected by the revaluation of the rates. 

The Chancellor's full speech can be found here

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