What you can expect from the chancellor’s speech on Wednesday
- Just 2 days to go before Chancellor Philip Hammond makes the Budget speech after Prime Minister’s questions on Wednesday.
- To promote ‘intergenerational fairness’, stamp duty could be slashed in the Budget for first-time buyers, reducing the sum needed by young people to jump on the property ladder. The stamp duty revenue has hit a record high, but the amount of sales have plunged.
- The chancellor is also set to give a £10bn boost to the Help to Buy scheme.
- With the housing market down, the government is likely to roll out a deal for the new army of renters.
- There’s also indication that there could be a move to freeze tuition fees in a bid to appeal to younger generations.Hammond might force universities to charge differently depending on a course’s employment rate.
- To keep up with the tech revolution, the finance minister is expected to announce funding for digital and technology sector and for the areas where the UK could become a world leader like driverless cars, artificial intelligence, electric cars and digital skills.
- To be seen as an environmentally-minded Chancellor, Hammond is also planning options like including hiking costs for existing diesel drivers rather than only on new models.
- The rise in alcohol duty has lead to the price of pint going up for the first time in five years. The drinks industry is worried again amid fears that the chancellor may “double dip” and one again apply the RPI rate.
- Reports also suggest the chancellor will offer a pay rise to nurses amid NHS spending cuts and unrest around public sector pay.
- There are also rumours that chancellor is palnning a raid on older workers to fund tax breaks for younger people. According to The Telegraph, Hammond wants to ‘restack the deck for the next generation’ whereby there could be a pension tax relief cut for older workers to fund a reduction in National Insurance contributions for workers in their 20s and 30s.
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