CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond has broken a Tory manifesto commitment by hiking up the National Insurance bills for millions of self-employed people.
Back in 2015, the Tories asked voters to back them promising to “commit to no increases in VAT/National Insurance contributions or income tax”.
After Hammond had sat down, spin doctors at the Treasury tried to insist this only applied to Class 1 National Insurance Contributions (NICs), those paid by employees and deducted from salaries. But there was no such distinction in the manifesto commitment.
The main rate of class 4 NICs, paid by most self employed people, will jump by 1 per cent to 10 per cent in April 2018 and then to 11 per cent in April 2019. This the Chancellor said, will raise £145 million a year by 2021/22.
It was the last budget before Theresa May triggers Article 50,the formal process for leaving the EU. It was Brexit that overshadowed what was a thin budget.
“As we start our negotiations to exit the European Union, this budget takes forward our plan to prepare Britain for a brighter future,” Hammond told MPs. “It provides a strong and stable platform for those negotiations.”
The new powers devolved to Holyrood, meant that many of the Chancellor’s big announcements in the budget didn’t apply to viewers in Scotland.
There was an extra £2bn for social care services, help for firms affected by business rate hikes, and money for free schools.
Under the Barnett Formula, this increased spending in England will mean an extra £350 million in consequentials for the Scottish Government’s coffers. The SNP, however remained sceptical.
"Every little helps but I don't think we will be putting out the bunting," SNP Economy spokesman Stewart Hosie said in the Commons.
There were also the heavily trailed plans to help the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Hammond said the Treasury would set up an expert panel look at using tax incentives as way of making it more viable for companies to sell on oil fields, and for others to keep them productive for longer.
The Chancellor told the Commons: “I have heard too the calls by North Sea Oil and Gas producers and the Scottish Government to provide further support for the transfer of late life assets. As UK oil and gas production declines,it is absolutely essential we maximise exploitation of remaining reserves and so we will publish a formal discussion paper on the options in due course.”
Announcing the latest predictions from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, the Chancellor said growth forecasts had been revised up from 1.4 per cent to 2 per cent for 2017, and that borrowing would be £16.8bn lower than previously forecast.
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