2018 Budget at a glance
Public finances
- Public borrowing in 2018 to be £11.6bn lower than forecast in March, representing 1.2% of gross domestic product, (GDP) the total value of goods produced and services provided
- Borrowing as a share of GDP to rise to 1.4% next year
- Borrowing to total £31.8bn, £26.7bn. £23.8bn, £20.8bn and £19.8bn in next five years
- Debt as share of GDP peaked at 85.2% in 2016-17, falling to 83.7% this year and to 74.1% by 2023-24
- 1.2% annual average growth in departmental spending promised
Economic snapshot
- 2018 growth forecast downgraded to 1.3% from 1.5% in March, due to impact of bad
- spring weather
- Forecasts raised slightly to 1.4%, 1.4%, 1.5% and 1.6% in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
- 3.3m more people in work since 2010 and 800,000 more jobs forecast by 2022
- Wages growth at its highest in nearly a decade.
Personal taxation and minimum wage
- Personal allowance threshold to rise from £11,850 to £12,500 in April.
- The higher rate income tax threshold to rise from £46,350 to £50,000 in April.
- After that, the two rates will rise in line with inflation.
- National Living Wage increasing by 4.9%, from £7.83 to £8.21 an hour, from April 2019.
Housing market
- First-time buyers of shared equity homes up to £500,000 to be exempt from stamp duty.
- £500m for Housing Infrastructure Fund to enable a further 650,000 homes to be built.
- Lettings relief limited to where property owner is in shared occupancy with tenant.
- New partnerships with housing associations in England to deliver 13,000 homes.
- Guarantees of up to £1bn for smaller house-builders.
Defence spending
- An extra £160m for counter-terrorism police
- An extra £1bn for cyber-capabilities and nuclear submarines
- £10m for mental health care for veterans
- £1m to fund school trips to World War one battlefields
- £1.7m in Holocaust education programmes
Alcohol, tobacco and fuel
- Beer, cider and spirits duties to be frozen.
- Cost of a bottle of wine duty to rise by 8p, in line with inflation, in February.
- Tobacco duty will continue to rise by inflation plus 2%.
- A packet of 20 cigarettes will go up by 33p at 18.00 GMT.
- A ten gram pack of cigars goes up by 17p.
- Fuel duty to be frozen for ninth year in a row.
- Remote Gaming Duty to increase to 21% for online gambling on “games of chance”.
Business and digital
- New 2% digital services tax on UK revenues of big technology companies
- Profitable companies with global sales of more than £500m will be liable
- Private finance initiative (PFI) contracts to be abolished in future
- New centre of excellence to manage existing deals “in the taxpayer’s interest”
- Annual investment allowance to be increased from £200,000 to £1m for two years
- Contribution of small companies to apprenticeship levy to be reduced from 10% to 5%
- Business rates bill for firms with a rateable value of £51,000 or less to be cut by third.
- Measure to benefit 90% of independent companies, cutting bill by £8,000
- £900m in business rates relief for small firms and £650m to rejuvenate high streets
- New 100% mandatory business rates relief for all public lavatories.
- Extending changes to the way self-employment status is taxed
Education and health
- Confirmation of an extra £20.5bn for the NHS over the next five years
- A minimum extra £2bn a year for mental health services
- New mental health crisis centres, providing support in accident and emergency units
- More mental health ambulances and a 24-hour mental health crisis hotline.
- An extra £700m for councils, for care for the elderly and those with disabilities
- £10m for air ambulances
- A one-off £400m to help schools buy “the little extras they need”
- Funding for 10 University Enterprise Zones
Regional funding
- An additional £950m for the Scottish government and £550m for the Welsh Government
- £320m for a Northern Ireland Executive in the period to 2020-21
- New City and Growth deals for Belfast, north Wales and the Tay Cities area
- £2m for Belfast to help recover from Primark fire
Environment and energy
- A new tax on non-recycled plastic packaging
- No tax on takeaway coffee cups but still possible in the future
- £60m for planting trees in England
- £10m to deal with abandoned waste sites
Transport and infrastructure
- £30bn for England’s roads, including repairs to motorways and potholes
- A 30% growth in infrastructure spending
- Opening the use of e-passport gates at airports
- Air Passenger Duty to be indexed in line with inflation