Buisness

• Government to continue paying 80% of employees’ wages for hours they cannot work
• Furlough extended to until the end of September. Click Here for more details
• 600,000 more self-employed people will be eligible for help
• Minimum wage to increase to £8.91 an hour from April.
• Employers asked to contribute 10% in July and 20% in August and September
• VAT cut for hospitality firms to be maintained at 5% until September
• Interim 12.5% rate to apply for the following six months Click Here for more details
• Business rates holiday for firms in England will continue from April until June Click Here for more details
• £5bn in re-opening grants for non-essential businesses of up to £6,000 per premises. Click Here for more details
• Incentive grants for apprenticeships to rise to £3,000 and £126 for traineeships Click Here for more details
• £400m to help arts venues in England, including museums and galleries, re-open

State of the economy
• UK economy forecast to return to pre-Covid levels by middle of 2022
• Annual growth set to rebound by 4% this year, followed by 7.3% growth in 2022
• UK to borrow a peacetime record of £355bn this year.
• Debt as a share of GDP to fall from 4.5% next year to 3.5% in 2022-23
• Unemployment expected to peak at 6.5% next year, lower than 11.9% previously predicted

Taxation
• No changes to rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT
• Personal income tax allowance to be frozen at £12,570 from 2022 to 2026
• Higher rate income tax threshold to be frozen at £50,270 from 2022 to 2026
• Corporation tax on company profits to rise from 19% to 25% in April 2023,Rate to be kept at 19% for about 1.5 million smaller companies Click Here for more details