The key announcements in Hunt’s Budget

This afternoon Jeremy Hunt delivered his second Budget as Chancellor. Much of his speech had been trailed over the previous days. The headline measure is a 2p cut in National Insurance, rather than the more expensive mooted cut to income tax. This will benefit 27 million workers from April: when combined with the previous cut to national insurance in the autumn statement, it is a cut worth £900 to the average earner. Labour will counter that it is just another example of the Tories giving with one hand but taking ‘even more with the other.’ Hunt’s other major tax change was the abolition of the non-doms scheme which could force Labour to rethink its spending plans.

This Budget contained few ‘rabbits’ but the most surprising measure on spending was Hunt’s announcement that the cut-off rate for child benefit will rise £50,000 to £80,000. He plans to move the high income child benefit charge to a household based system in 2026.