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Autumn Budget: The key points at a glance

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Small details and big facts in the Budget

By James Sillars, Business Reporter

The key announcements from Chancellor Philip Hammond:

HOUSING MARKET

:: Help for young people to secure home deposit – abolishing stamp duty for all first-time buyer purchases on houses worth up to £300,000. This is also available on the first £300,000 of the purchase price of properties up to £500,000.

:: Wider support over next five years includes £44bn in capital loans and funding guarantees to help build 300,000 net new homes a year on average by the mid-2020s.

MIDDLEWICH, ENGLAND - MAY 20:  Construction workers build new houses on a housing development on May 20, 2014 in Middlewich, England. Official figures have shown that house prices have risen by 8% in the year ending in March. There have been calls by some experts for the UK Help to Buy scheme to scaled down as it boosts the property market.  (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Chancellor promises 300,000 more homes a year

:: Review ordered to study planning laws and "fix problem" of "land-banking". The Chancellor threatens compulsory purchases if necessary to get projects off the ground.

:: A £630m small-sites fund to "unstick" the delivery of 40,000 homes, and a further £2.7bn to more than double the Housing Infrastructure Fund.

NHS

:: Extra £10bn investment in this Parliament to improve resilience and make "under pressure" NHS fit for future. Makes £2.8bn available to NHS in England, with £350m for this winter.

London ambulance
Hammond commits an extra £2.8bn for NHS in England

:: Pledge of extra cash to support any new pay settlement for nurses.

RBS

:: The Government plans to re-start the sell-off of its 72% stake in the bank – which it rescued during the financial crisis – by the end of the 2018/19 financial year, according to the Treasury's Budget Red Book.

:: It aims to sell £15bn worth of the stock over five years – or around two-thirds of the stake – and estimates it will face a £26bn loss on it, though this is lower than the £29bn hit previously pencilled in.

:: The £3bn a year boost will help fund many of the Chancellor's Budget givewaways.

CLEANER CARS & TRANSPORT

:: From April 2018, the first year VED (car tax) rate for diesel cars that don't meet the latest standards will go up by one band. The Chancellor emphasises this is cars only, and that the money will go to new Clean Air Fund.

:: Future vehicles will be driver-less but electric first. New £400m charging infrastructure fund, invest an extra £100m in Plug-In-Car Grant, and £40m in charging research and development.

The new 'millennial' railcards are expected to launch in spring 2018
Extended rail card and frozen fuel duty

BREXIT

:: Extra £3bn to come for Brexit preparations over next two years.

ECONOMY

:: OBR forecasts another 600,000 people in work by 2022.

:: OBR revises GDP growth for 2017 down to 1.5% from 2% and down to 1.4% from 1.6% in 2018.

:: Debt still too high and needs to come down – OBR predicts "on track" to meet fiscal rules. Borrowing to fall in every year of the forecast to reach lowest level in 20 years by 22/23. Borrowing forecast to be £49.9bn this year; £8.4bn lower than forecast at the Spring Budget.

BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY

:: Industrial Strategy at heart of fairer Britain. National Productivity Investment Fund extended for a further year and expanded to over £31bn to upgrade Britain's economic infrastructure for the 21st Century.

:: Help for technology future by unlocking over £20bn of new investment in UK scale-up businesses, including through a new fund in the British Business Bank, "seeded with £2.5 billion of public money."

Theresa May passes Philip Hammond some cough sweets
Help for technology future with over £20bn of new investment

OCEAN RESCUE

:: Working with Michael Gove to investigate how the tax system and charges on single-use plastic items can reduce waste.

Earlier this year, Sky launched its Ocean Rescue campaign aimed at reducing the amount of plastic waste that ends up in the world's seas.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky's Group Chief Executive, said: "Sky welcomes the Chancellor's announcement to investigate how taxes and charges on single-use plastics might reduce waste.

"It is a crucial step towards saving our oceans – but Government can't do it alone. We must act now as businesses and as individuals before it's too late.

"This is why we launched Sky Ocean Rescue and are taking single-use plastic completely out of our business.

"And it's why we are working with our customers and employees to help them understand that they too can make a real difference. We call on other big businesses to do the same."

EDUCATION

:: Extra £20m to support new T-Level technical qualifications.

:: Working with CBI and TUC on National Retraining Scheme for the workplace.

UK REGIONS

:: Northern Powerhouse, the Midlands Engine and elected mayors across the UK supported with a new £1.7bn Transforming Cities Fund.

:: Budget means £2bn more for the Scottish Government, £1.2bn more for the Welsh Government and over £650m for a new Northern Ireland Executive.

WELFARE AND WAGE

:: Help for families and businesses on cost of living: £1.5bn package to remedy concerns on Universal Credit, including removing seven-day waiting period applied at the beginning of a claim.

Gen X-ers have lived through several recessions and periods of high unemployment
Hammond backs down on universal credit

:: From April, National Living Wage will rise 4.4%, from £7.50 an hour to £7.83.

PERSONAL TAX

:: From April, personal tax allowance to rise to £11,850 and the higher rate threshold to £46,350

BOOZE AND FAGS

:: Legislate to increase duty on 'white ciders'. Duties on other ciders, wines, spirits and on beer will be frozen.

Booze and fags: Has the Chancellor made your day?

:: Tobacco to rise in line with escalator, though extra 1% duty on hand-rolling tobacco.

:: Fuel duty frozen.

CORPORATE TAX

:: VAT registration threshold will not be reduced.

:: Small firms to get help on business rates costs by bringing forward the planned uprating switch from RPI to CPI by two years, to April 2018.

:: From April 2019, UK will apply income tax to royalties relating to digital retail sales in UK.

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Source – News.sky.com

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