The chancellor has announced his financial update, here are the main points from the autumn statement.
Personal tax
Employee national insurance contributions are being reduced by two percentage points from 12% to 10%.
This tax cut will be brought in from 6 January 2024.
This will affect 28 million people, saving someone on the average salary £450.
Growth
Forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility show the economy will grow by 0.6% this year and 0.7% next.
It is now 1.8% larger than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the official figures.
Inflation is expected to fall to 2.8% by the end of 2024 according to the spending watchdog, down from 11.1% last year when Hunt and Sunak took office.
GDP will then grow 1.4% in 2025, and 1.9% in 2026 and 2% in 2027 and 1.7% in 2028.
In March, the OBR had forecast the economy would shrink by 0.2% in 2023, before growing by 1.8% in 2024, 2.5 % in 2025, 2.1% in 2026 and 1.9% in 2027.
Wages and benefits
Making the biggest set of welfare reforms in a decade and will get 200,000 more people into work.
People claiming benefits will face mandatory work experience if they do not find a job within 18 months.
As pre-announced, the “national living wage” will increase by more than a pound an hour from April to £11.44. It will also be extended to 21-year-olds.
Benefits will be increased by 6.7%, and there will be tougher requirements for those who claim them to look for work.
The state pension will be increased by 8.5%.
Increase the local housing allowance, which has been frozen since 2020, in a measure worth £800 for some households next year.
Borrowing
Headline debt is to be worth 94% of GDP by the end of the forecast period, lower than forecast by the OBR in March.
In cash terms, the OBR estimates the budget deficit – the gap between spending and income – is 4.5% of GDP in 2023-24.
In its previous forecasts in March, the OBR had estimated borrowing would be 5.1% of GDP or £132bn in cash terms, in 2023-24.
Business tax
Making so-called “full expensing” permanent. This allows businesses to offset investment in items such as new IT equipment and factory machinery against tax.
The chancellor adds that the total package of measures will help increase business investment by about 1% of GDP.
Reform taxes paid by self-employed people, and will abolish their “class 2” national insurance contributions, which count towards their state pension entitlements. This will cut taxes for 2 million people, he says. “Class 4” contributions will be cut by one percentage point. Together these will be worth £350 a year.
There will be a business rates discount for hospitality retail and leisure worth £4.3bn.
Economy
The chancellor will invest an extra £4.5bn between 2025 and 2030 in manufacturing.
About £1m will go to aerospace companies and businesses working on green technologies.
Accepting recommendations from a review of foreign direct investment into the UK, carried out by former business minister Lord Harrington.
There will be a new “investment zone” in Wrexham, Wales, in a bid to increase employment in the area. There will be three others in England: Greater Manchester, and the west and east Midlands.