At-a-glance: All the key points from Budget 2017

5 min read22 November 2017

Catch up on all the key figures and pledges from Chancellor Philip Hammond's autumn 2017 budget.

- Stamp duty to be scrapped for all first time buyers on properties worth up to £300,000 - saving buyers on average £5,000.

- £3bn to be set aside for Government departments to cope with Brexit repercussions over the next two years.

- Universal Credit claimants' waiting time reduced from six weeks to five weeks.

UK ECONOMY

Britain's growth forecast has been downgraded to 1.5% in 2017, 1.4% in 2018, 1.3% in 2019 and 2020, before picking up to 1.6% in 2022. That's a fall rom 2% in March - the last spring budget before switching to autumn.
Net debt will peak at 86.5% and then fall as % of GDP
Inflation to peak this quarter at 3%, before falling again.

Annual borrowing at £49.9bn for this year - £8.4bn lower than in spring.
Borrowing forecast to total £39.5bn this year to £25.6bn in 2022-23.
Net borrowing as a percentage of GDP to fall from 2.4% this year to 1.9% next year, falling to 1.1% by 2022.
Minimum wage will rise from £7.50 to £7.83 in April.
OBR forecast additional 600,000 in work by 2022.

BREXIT

£3bn to be set aside over the next two years to help departments cope with Britain's withdrawal from the EU - notably in the event of a 'no deal' outcome. This is on top of the £700m already spent.

BUSINESS

Bring RPI to CPI switch forward to April 2018 (by two years) saving businesses "£2.3bn over next five years".
An end to the 'Staircase Tax' - which sets business rates according to the number of rooms they use, including communal staircases and lifts.
Revalue business rates every three years rather than every five.
£80bn of investment in Research and Development over next decade.

EDUCATION

Schools are to benefit from a more than £200m budget boost. Around 42,000 teachers in select schools will each be given a £1,000 training budget to take advantage of "high-quality professional development opportunities" - costing £42m - with a further £177m to bolster maths and science provision.
£20m for further education colleges to prepare for T-Levels.
Tripling number of computer science teachers to 12,000.
National Retraining Scheme prioritising digital skills to help those in work - with a £30m investment.
End thousands of people repaying more than they need to on their student loan, by improving communication between the Student Loans Company and HMRC - with a more effective system set to be in place by April 2019.

ENVIRONMENT

Investigate how the tax system and charges on single-use plastic items can reduce waste.
Levy on diesel cars to fund £220m clean air fund.
Increasing electric, driverless cars (see 'Transport' section)

HEALTH

£7.5bn to NHS England's resource budget for this year and next year.
£10bn for the NHS Sustainability and Transformation plan.
£350m immediately to allow trusts to plan for this winter
Will provide "additional funding" for pay if talks with unions "bear fruit".

HOUSING

Abolishing stamp duty for first time buyers on properties worth up to £300,000, and on the first £300,000 of properties worth up to £500,000 in London.
£44bn over the next five years to boost housing market, with a commitment to building 300,000 new homes in England by the mid-2020s.
£34m to develop construction skills to build the houses.
Urgent review in the gap between planning permissions and houses subsequently built - interim report due by spring statement.
Provide £28m for Kensington and Chelsea Council following the Grenfell disaster.
Government will stump up for essential fire safety work needed by local authorities.
Local authorities will be able to charge a 100% council tax premium on empty properties.

REGION DEALS

Devolution deals with investment in English regions.
Increases in the budgets of the Scottish government (£2bn), Welsh government (£1.2bn) and the Northern Irish executive (£650,000).
The devolved nations will also gain new city deals.

TAXATION

Increase the personal allowance to £11,850 and the higher rate threshold to £46,350.
And end to VAT that has been imposed on Scottish fire and police services since they merged into national bodies in 2013. The Government will from now stump up for the estimated £35m per year bill.
Transferable Tax History’ for transfers of oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
Duty on strong low-quality ciders will be upped, while other alcoholic drinks will be frozen.
Raise further £4.8bn in clampdown on evasion and avoidance and tax.
Clampdown on online VAT fraud by making online sellers jointly liable through the retailers they sell through.

TRANSPORT

As trailed earlier in the week, the Government are to help millennials “get on life” by introducing a new rail card for 26-30-year-olds.
An independent review into airline insolvency arrangements, in light of the sudden collapse of Monarch in September. An interim report is due by summer 2018, with a final report out by the end of next year.
Investment driverless cars - part of new £400m charging infrastructure fund, invest an extra £100m in Plug-In-Car Grant, and £40m in charging R&D.
Cancel the fuel (petrol and diesel) duty rise set for April.

UNIVERSAL CREDIT

Invest £1.5bn to: Remove the seven day waiting period applied at the beginning of a benefit claim - reducing payment delay from SIX to FIVE weeks.
Change the advances system to ensure that any household that needs it can access a full month’s payment within five days of applying.
Extend the repayment period for advances from 6 months to 12 months.
New Universal Credit claimant in receipt of Housing Benefit, will continue to receive it for two weeks.

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