The new Chancellor announced his Autumn Statement measures in Parliament. A key promise of Theresa May, when she arrived at Downing Street, was to support those who work hard all week but are only just getting by.
The tax free personal allowance will be raised to £11,500 in April and £12,500 by 2020 – a direct income tax cut for 28 million people. Bear in mind that in 2010 the personal allowance was £6475, the amount you earn before you have to start paying income tax, this shows real support for hard working people.
We will go further by increasing incomes to help families make ends meet, the National Living Wage will increase from £7.20 per hour to £7.50 in April; a pay rise for over 1 million of the lowest paid workers. The Chancellor also announced that fuel duty will be frozen again saving the average motorist £130 at the pump since 2010.
Another key focus of the Autumn statement was to boost the economy by increasing productivity. To give an example our productivity levels lags behind the likes of Germany. If a production takes a German worker 4 days to complete, it would current take a British work 5 days. Clearly this needs to change and there is potential to improve this whilst generating large growth in our economy for everyone to benefit.
That is why a National Productivity Investment Fund has been announced worth £23 billion that provides the financial backbone for the Government’s Industrial Strategy. Every penny will be earmarked for high value-generating infrastructure and research, including an extra £2 billion a year by 2020-21 for additional investment in Research and Development. Meanwhile Business rates will be cut to help generate revenue and encourage further job creation.
Debt continues to be an issue for the British economy and has been for some time, it is important that the long-term goal continues to be balance the books.