Budget Highlights
Tax
Personal Tax
- National Insurance (NI) and income tax thresholds frozen until the end of 2030/31.
- Amount under-65s can put into cash ISA’s capped at £12,000 a year, with the rest of the £20,000 annual allowance reserved for investments.
- Basic and higher income tax rates on property (2027/28), savings, (2027/28) and dividend income (2026/27) to increase by 2%.
Business Tax
- Tax exemption for small packages from overseas retailers’ worth under £135 scrapped from 2029.
- Tax on profits made by gambling companies from online bets to rise from 21% to 40% in April. Abolition of 10% bingo tax.
Housing and Property
- Properties in England worth more than £2m face a council tax surcharge of £2,500 rising to £7,500 for homes worth £5m or more.
Income and Investment
Minimum Wage
- For over-21 increase to £12.71 per hour.
- For 18-20’s to increase to £10.85 per hour.
- For 16–17-year-olds an increase to £8.00 per hour.
Pensions
- Basic and new statement pension payments to go up by 4.8% from April.
- From 2029, the amount people can sacrifice from their salary to avoid paying NI on pension contributions will be capped at £2,000.
Benefits
- From April the two-child benefit cap has been removed.
Savings
- Help to Save scheme, offers people on universal credit a bonus on savings, extended and expanded beyond 2027.
Transport
- Fuel duty frozen until August 2026.
- A new mileage-based tax for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars from 2028.
- Regulated rail fares for journeys in England frozen next year.
- Premium cars to be excluded from the Motability scheme.