Knox Social Subjects

🚨 SUMMARY: Rachel Reeves’ second Autumn Budget TAX RISES - £26bn - Income tax thresholds frozen until April 2031 (£8bn) - Pension salary sacrifice capped at £2k a year for employee and employer contributions (£4.7bn) - Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold frozen for 3 years from April 2027 - 20% VAT applied to Uber, Bolt and other private hire rides after loophole closed - 3p per mile tax on electric vehicles from 2028 - New council tax surcharge on homes over £2m and £5m from 2028 - Big rise in gambling taxes including Remote Gaming Duty rising from 21% to 40% and a new 25% online betting duty - horse racing and in person betting not affected - £925 levy added to overseas student fees to fund maintenance grants - Packaged milkshakes and lattes added to the sugar tax from 2028 with the threshold lowered to 4.5g per 100ml - Motability tax breaks removed, so users pay VAT on upfront payments and tax on insurance for higher value vehicles - Dividend tax rates rise by 2 percentage points from April 2026 - Property income taxed at 22% basic, 42% higher and 47% additional rates - Customs duty added to all low value online imports once relief is scrapped - Savings income tax rises by 2 percentage points from April 2027 for all taxpayers - CGT relief for Employee Ownership Trusts cut from 100% to 50% - Business investment relief reduced as writing down allowance falls from 18% to 14% from April 2026 - Air Passenger Duty extended so private jets over 5.7 tonnes pay the higher rate - Carbon charges extended to international shipping through the Emissions Trading Scheme from 2028 - Landfill Tax increased, with both the lower and standard rates rising each year -Tax relief for unreimbursed homeworking costs scrapped - New tax charge on employers extracting surpluses from defined benefit pension schemes - HMRC anti-avoidance and compliance crackdown - Class 2 National Insurance shut off for people living abroad, ending access to the cheap overseas rate for maintaining UK benefit rights, with tougher eligibility checks for voluntary Class 3 PERSONAL / GOVERNMENT SAVINGS: - Annual cash ISA limit cut from £20,000 to £12,000 from April 2027 to encourage people to invest in stocks and shares - only for under 65s - Lifetime ISA consultation next year on introducing a new product for first time buyers to use - Government departments ordered to deliver £2.9bn savings in 2028–29, rising to £4.9bn in 2030–31 - Police and Crime Commissioners abolished and councillor numbers cut by around 5,000, saving £250m over five years - £74m reclaimed from asylum accommodation suppliers after overpayments - Fraud crackdown across tax and benefits to raise £1.3bn in 2030–31 - Strategic Asset Review and asset-efficiency drive to extract £1bn of value by 2030 PAY, BENEFITS AND PENSIONS: - National Living Wage rises to £12.71 from April 2026; 18–20s to £10.85; 16–17s and apprentices to £8.00 - Two-child benefit limit scrapped from April 2026, lifting 450,000 children out of poverty - Universal Credit to rise by 6% - Universal Credit health element reformed from April 2026, tightening the Severe Conditions Criteria so fewer people automatically qualify for the higher-rate support - Working-age benefits rise 3.8% from April 2026 - Help to Save scheme extended and expanded past 2027 - From Jan 2027, pre-1997 pensions in the PPF and FAS get annual CPI increases capped at 2.5% HOUSEHOLD BILLS AND HOUSING: - £150 average cut to energy bills from April 2026 via shifting Energy Company Obligation (ECO) costs off bills - Warm Home Discount expanded to cover 3 million more households - Warm Homes Plan funding increased (hundreds of millions across 2026–29) - Grant scheme launched for land remediation and water clean-up using water company fines TRANSPORT: - Rail fares frozen for one year from March 2026 - 5p fuel duty cut extended until Aug 2026, then phased reversal (1p in Sept 2026, 2p in Dec 2026, 2p in Mar 2027) - Fuel duty inflation rise cancelled for 2026–27 - Lower Thames Crossing receives £890m investment - £2bn to local authorities to repair potholes annually by 2029-30 SMOKING AND ALCOHOL: - Tobacco, vaping and alcohol duties to rise with inflation NHS: - 250 new Neighbourhood Health Centres announced, with 120 open by 2030 - early sites in Birmingham, Barrow-in-Furness, Truro and Southall - £300m extra capital investment for NHS technology - 5.2 million more appointments delivered since the start of Parliament due to existing investment - NHS prescription charges frozen for one year at £9.90 UK DEBT, INFLATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: - Borrowing will fall from 4.5% of GDP in 2025–26 to 1.9% by 2029–30 - UK projected to have the second-fastest growth in the G7 and to cut borrowing more rapidly than any G7 country - Budget measures will cut inflation by 0.4 percentage points next year - the largest non-crisis reduction ever recorded by the OBR - Growth forecast for 2025 upgraded from 1% to 1.5% - Inflation predicted to average 3.5% this year, before falling to 2.5% next year, and returning to the Government's 2% target in 2027 - One fiscal event per year is now law, with the OBR doing one annual assessment OTHER: - Business rates change from April 2026: both tax rates are being cut (small business rate from 49.9p to 43.2p, standard rate from 55.5p to 48p), which means most businesses will pay less, though a few with sharply higher property values may still see increases - Plastic Packaging Tax to rise with inflation with new certification rules, requiring stricter independent proof that recycled content is genuine - £5 million to increase book supplies in state-funded secondary schools and £18m for 200 new playgrounds across England - Investment to refurbish 200 playgrounds across England - £4.7bn into new prisons between 2026-27 and 2029-30 - Youth Guarantee given £425m funding, expanding work placements and training for 18 to 21-year-olds - Devolved nations get £1.7bn extra, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receiving additional funding through Barnett consequentials