{"id":23068,"date":"2024-03-13T12:27:45","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T12:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2024\/03\/13\/news-in-review-144\/"},"modified":"2024-03-13T13:49:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T13:49:15","slug":"news-in-review-144","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2024\/03\/13\/news-in-review-144\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><a><strong><em>\u201cA plan to grow the economy, a plan for better public services, a plan to make work pay\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his Spring Budget last week, during which he provided an economic update from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The latest projections showed the rate of inflation is expected to fall below the Bank of England\u2019s 2% target level in <em>\u201ca few months\u2019 time.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>The OBR expects economic growth of 0.8% this year, with growth of 1.9% in 2025, higher than the 1.4% figure previously predicted.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>The Chancellor said his Budget was <em>\u201cA plan to grow the economy, a plan for better public services, a plan to make work pay\u2026 Growth up, jobs up and taxes down.\u201d<\/em>Headline Budget announcements included<strong>:<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>National Insurance Contributions (NICs)<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list\">\n<ul><div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>A reduction in the main rate of employee <a>NICs <\/a>by 2p in the pound from 10% to 8%, following the 2p cut that took effect in January<\/li>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>A cut to the main rate of self-employed NICs, meaning the main rate of Class 4 NICs will reduce from 9% to 6%.<\/li>\n<\/div><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Child Benefit<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list\">\n<ul><div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>The threshold for the High Income Child Benefit Charge will be increased to \u00a360,000 in April<\/li>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>The rate of the charge will be halved, so that Child Benefit is not lost in full until an individual earns \u00a380,000 per annum<\/li>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>By April 2026, the Child Benefit system will be based on household rather than individual incomes.<\/li>\n<\/div><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>New savings products<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list\">\n<ul><div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>A new UK ISA with a \u00a35,000 annual allowance in addition to the existing ISA allowance. It will be a new tax-free savings product for people to invest in UK-focused assets (consultation re implementation to run to 6 June 2024)<\/li>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>British Savings Bonds to be delivered through National Savings &amp; Investments (NS&amp;I) in April 2024, offering a guaranteed interest rate, fixed for three years.<\/li>\n<\/div><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Business taxation<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list\">\n<ul><div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>From April 2024 the threshold at which small businesses must register to pay VAT will be raised from \u00a385,000 to \u00a390,000.<\/li>\n<\/div><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Non-dom tax regime<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list\">\n<ul><div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>This regime is set to be abolished<\/li>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>From April 2025, new arrivals to the UK will not have to pay tax on foreign income and gains for the first four years of their UK residency<\/li>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>After that, they will pay the same tax as other UK residents.<\/li>\n<\/div><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Property taxation<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list\">\n<ul><div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>From 1 June 2024 Stamp Duty Land Tax Multiple Dwellings Relief will be abolished<\/li>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-list-item\">\n<li>The higher rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on residential properties will be reduced from 28% to 24%.<\/li>\n<\/div><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Public Sector Productivity Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>The Chancellor announced a new Public Sector Productivity Plan to restart public sector reform and change the Treasury\u2019s traditional approach to public spending. This includes a \u00a32.5bn funding boost for the NHS in 2024\/25, allowing the service to continue its focus on reducing waiting times for patients and \u00a33.4bn to modernise NHS IT systems. The plan also includes \u00a3800m of additional investment to boost productivity across other public services, including \u00a3230m for drones and new technology to free up police officers\u2019 time for frontline work and \u00a375m to roll out the Violence Reduction Unit model across England and Wales.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Budget reaction<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), Paul Johnson, commented on the Budget, <em>\u201cThe OBR marginally increased its forecasts for economic growth, but the overall public finance picture remains largely unchanged from the autumn. The Chancellor is still on track to stabilise debt as a fraction of national income in five years\u2019 time&#8230; While his ambition to improve public sector efficiency and productivity is the right one, and his injection of capital funding into the NHS is a sensible way of doing so, delivering on such plans and securing cash savings will be very tough indeed.\u201d<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>In other news<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>Last week new data showed that India\u2019s economy grew by 8.4% in the final quarter of 2023, supported by strong construction and manufacturing activity. Retaining its title as the world&#8217;s fastest growing major economy, India is forecast to leapfrog Germany and Japan as the world&#8217;s third largest economy in the coming years. The Indian government estimate growth of 7.3% for the 2024 fiscal year to 31 March.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>In China, Premier Li Qiang outlined a series of measures last week aimed at boosting its flagging economy, whilst revealing an ambitious 5% growth target for 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Here to help<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>Financial advice is key, so please do not hesitate to get in contact with any questions or concerns you may have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The past is not a guide to future performance and past performance may not necessarily be repeated.<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>All details are correct at time of writing (13 March 2024)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cA plan to grow the economy, a plan for better public services, a plan to make work pay\u201d Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his Spring Budget last week, during which he provided an economic update from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The latest projections showed the rate of inflation is expected to fall below the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,112],"tags":[],"hd_content_source":[116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23071,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23068\/revisions\/23071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23068"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=23068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}