Autumn Statement Snapshot 2023 - PK Partnership | Chartered Independent Insurance Brokers and Financial Advisers

Autumn Statement Snapshot 2023

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November 22, 2023

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The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, presented the Autumn Statement to Parliament earlier today.

This Autumn Statement is not likely to be the last fiscal event before next year’s expected General Election, but it is taking place as Labour continues to hold a substantial lead in the opinion polls, interest rates remain high and there is ongoing international tension with war in Ukraine and the Middle East.

This snapshot is intended to give you high level bullet points of the key points announced by the Chancellor from the dispatch box.

More in-depth details are available from the Government website here.

OBR economic forecasts

Growth
o   2023: 0.6% (-0.2% in Spring Budget)
o   2024: 0.7% (1.8%)
o   2025: 1.4% (2.5%)
o   2026: 2.0% (2.1%)
o   2027: 2.0% (1.9%)
o   2028: 1.7% (no forecast)

CPI inflation
o   2023: 7.5% (6.1%)
o   2024: 3.6% (0.9%)
o   2025: 1.8% (0.1%)
o   2026: 1.4% (0.5%)
o   2027: 1.7% (1.6%)
o   2028: 2.0% (no forecast)

Public sector net borrowing
o   2023/2024: 4.5% (5.1%)
o   2024/2025: 3.0% (3.2%)
o   2025/2026: 2.7% (2.8%)
o   2026/2027: 2.3% (2.2%)
o   2027/2028: 1.6% (1.6%)
o   2028/2029: 1.1% (1.1%)

Unemployment
o   2023: 4.2% (4.1%)
o   2024: 4.6% (4.4%)
o   2025: 4.6% (4.3%)
o   2026: 4.4% (4.2%)
o   2027: 4.2% (4.1%)
o   2028: 4.1% (no forecast)

Tax and National Insurance

Income tax personal allowance and thresholds to remain unchanged.
Class 1 National Insurance (NI) to be reduced from 12% to 10% from 6 January 2024 while Class 2 NI is to be abolished and Class 4 NI to be reduced from 9% to 8% from April 2024.
Class 1 NI is paid by employees under State Pension age who earn more than £242 a week from one job and Class 2 and Class 4 NI by self-employed people earning profits of £12,570 or more a year.
NI thresholds to remain unchanged.
National Living Wage to increase from £10.42 an hour to £11.44 an hour from April 2024 for individuals aged 21 or older.
ISA allowance to remain unchanged at £20,000 and JISA allowance at £9000 in 2024/2025.
Multiple subscriptions to ISAs of the same type to be allowed together with partial ISA transfers between providers from April 2024.
Alcohol duties to remain unchanged until 1 August 2024.

Pensions and Benefits

State Pension to increase by 8.5% from April 2024 in line with National Average Earnings. The full New State Pension will be £221.20 a week.
Working age benefits to increase by 6.7% from April 2024 in line with September CPI figure.
The Autumn Finance Bill 2023 to remove the pensions lifetime allowance from April 2024 and clarify the taxation of lump sums and lump sum death benefits.
Consultation on legal right for employees to require new employers to make contributions into their existing pensions.

Business

‘110 measures announced today to boost business investment by £20 billion a year’.
Measures include reforms to speed up planning applications, investment in strategic industries such as technology and reforms to speed up the time it takes for clean energy businesses to access the electricity grid. This could result in up to £10,000 off electricity bills over ten years for people living closest to new transmission infrastructure.
The Government will look at options for selling off its remaining shares in NatWest Group by 2025/2026.
Full expensing to be made permanent. Full expensing allows companies to write off the cost of investment in qualifying plant and machinery in one go against corporation tax.
New devolution deals for Hull and East Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cornwall and Devon and Torbay.
Firms bidding for government contracts will have to settle invoices within 55 days at first, and then within 30 days.
75% business rates discount for hospitality, retail and leisure sector to be extended for another year.