Yesterday, Chancellor Phillip Hammond made his annual budget statement.
Below are key points announced yesterday that will have an impact on London and Londoners.
Regional statistics in London:
- Employment: There are 967,132 more people in employment in London since 2010, meaning more families with the security of a regular wage since.
- Unemployment: The level of unemployment in London has fallen by 41 per cent since 2010.
- Tax cuts: Cut tax for over 4 million people in London since 2010, helping people to keep more of their own money.
- National Living Wage: There are 166,000 people in London having a pay rise in 2018 thanks to the National Living Wage, helping to boost the pay of the lowest paid.
Budget announcements for London include:
- Investing £291 million to deliver over 18,000 new homes in the London Docklands, so that everyone has a safe and decent place to call home.
- Providing a £5 million investment in the Westminster Ceremonial Streetscape Project to improve security and reduce congestion. London will benefit from an investment of £5 million in the Westminster Streetscape project to increase security around Westminster, making sure that people living, working and visiting our capital are safe.
- Supporting a study to develop options and consult the local area on a Great Thames Park. The study will draw on the Thames Estuary Commission report.
- Investing an additional £13 million across the country to improve access to flood information, helping to reduce damage to homes and lives. This includes an expansion to the flood warning system, protecting around 900 more at-risk properties in London.
- Considering the recommendations of the review into Crossrail 2 and the case for the project ahead of the next Spending Review. We will consider the recommendations of the Independent Affordability Review of Crossrail 2.
Other Budget measures for hardworking families in London.
- Overall investment in public services will increase in real terms over the next five years. Public spending will increase overall by 1.2 per cent in real terms each year, with precise plans to be set out at the Spending Review.
- £400 million more for schools this year. We are allocating £10,000 to the average primary and £50,000 to the average secondary to help schools buy the equipment they need.
- Funding the Prime Minister’s NHS commitment. We have fully-funded the cash settlement that was set out in June – which equates to £20.5 billion more in real terms by 2023-24, and an average real growth rate in the NHS’s budget of 3.4 per cent a year.
- Fulfilling our promises on income tax one year early, so people keep more of what they earn. We will raise the Personal Allowance to £12,500 and Higher Rate Threshold to £50,000 one year early, saving a typical basic rate taxpayer £130 compared to 2018-19 and £1,205 compared to 2010-11. Nearly 1 million fewer people will pay the higher rate of income tax.
- Supporting our councils with an additional £1 billion of funding. We will support councils with £650 million for social care, £84 million for children’s social care programmes over five years and £420 million for potholes this year.
- Backing high streets by cutting business rates by a third for two years. Rates will be cut by a third for retailers with rateable value under £51,000, saving up to 90 per cent of all shops up to £8,000 each year.
- Investing an additional £1.7 billion per year to benefit working families on Universal Credit. We will increase the work allowance – the amount families can earn before losing benefits – by £1,000, worth £630 per year to those households.
- Providing £500 million more for Brexit preparedness. The Chancellor has already set aside £1.5 billion next year to prepare for all eventualities – today we are increasing that by £500 million to £2 billion.
- A 2 per cent Digital Services Tax will ensure large digital firms pay a fair share of tax to support our public services. From 2020, large social media platforms, search engines and online marketplaces will pay 2 per cent on revenues linked to UK users.
- The Royal Mint will produce a coin to mark the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. This will be available in Spring 2019.