George Osborne’s sixth budget was criticised by a local business leader yesterday, despite the chancellor insisting “the sun is starting to shine” on the British economy.
In a confident speech only 50 days before the election, Mr Osborne announced new growth figures predicting the economy will increase by 2.5 per cent this year – a slight improvement on the 2.4 per cent expected in December.
Notable measures in his red box included a planned end to the public spending squeeze by 2019-20, a £1,000 tax-free allowance for interest on savings, the scrapping of the annual tax return, a £15m church repair fund, a cut in corporation tax to 20 per cent by April, and a freeze in fuel duty by halting an expected September increase.
Here are three graphics about what you need to know.
The minimum wage
The national minimum wage will increase by 20p an hour to £6.70 from October 2015. Last year, the NMW grew 19p by the same 3%. The hourly rate for young workers (16-20 years old) will also rise. Apprentices will benefit the most with the NMW up for them by 20% (57p) from £2.73 to £3.30 an hour. Considering the 0.3% inflation however, the changes can have little impact. Use the graphic bellow to see the changes for each age group.
Personal allowance
The single person’s tax-free personal allowance will rise to £10,800 from April 2016, and £11,000 from April 2017. This is the amount of income a single person under the age of 65 can earn before having to pay any tax.
If you missed Osborne’s speech, here are his buzzwords to watch out.
*Word cloud created from Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget 2015 speech using Tagul.com. We removed generic common nouns and verbs, articles, prepositions, and numbers.
Not all optimism
The chancellor’s optimism was not shared by one of Islington’s leading business leaders.
Courtney Bailey, chairman of the Finsbury Park Business Forum, said: “There wasn’t really much there at all. I don’t see that this is a budget that has done anything at all for business. It’s just a budget which hints towards the further cuts to come.
“I would have expected to have seen VAT reduced because this gives the public some hand in spending a bit more.
“A cut to corporation tax might be seen as being good overall, but this only counts towards business with profits above £300,000 so will not help some of Islington’s struggling smaller businesses.
“I think this is just a gimmick personally,” responded Ed Miliband after the chancellor’s address to the House of Commons.
He added the government had “failed working families” and said Mr Osborne’s promise of reducing taxes would not be “believed” by the British public.
Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury, accused Mr Osborne of using “weasel words” on the subject of the national debt, which by the general election is predicted to be falling as a share of the economy rather than an actual sum of money.
Ed: where was mention of Public Services & NHS? Red book shows cuts at X2 pace of this govt. But their failure means they plan massive cuts
— Emily Thornberry MP (@EmilyThornberry) March 18, 2015
Ed is pointing out that Osborne’s detailed plans (shown in Red Book) inc massive cuts to NHS & cuts to social care #secretplan #Budget2015 — Emily Thornberry MP (@EmilyThornberry) March 18, 2015
Ed Miliband also went on to Twitter to talk about the budget.
It was a budget people won’t believe. George Osborne just spent an hour telling people they’re better off when they know they’re worse off.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) March 18, 2015
*Graphics by Nicole Chang and Krystina Shveda
