The Chancellor has this afternoon delivered his Spring Budget and there’s good news for the professional recruitment sector. The ‘back to work’ ethos underlying much of the Budget should be a boon to recruiters, as should investment and reliefs focused on key professional sectors, such as finance, life sciences, nuclear and AI.
Here are some highlights and key points for business
Taxation and wages
Cap on amount workers can accumulate in pensions savings over their lifetime before having to pay extra tax (currently £1.07m) to be abolished
Tax-free yearly allowance for pension pot to rise from £40,000 to £60,000 – having been frozen for nine years
Fuel duty frozen – the 5p cut to fuel duty on petrol and diesel, due to end in April, kept for another year
Alcohol taxes to rise in line with inflation from August, with new reliefs for beer, cider and wine sold in pubs
Tax on tobacco to increase by 2% above inflation, and 6% above inflation for hand-rolling tobacco
Jobs and work
30 hours of free childcare for working parents in England expanded to cover one and two-year-olds, to be rolled out in stages from April 2024
Families on universal credit to receive childcare support up front instead of in arrears, with the £646-a-month per child cap raised to £951
£600 “incentive payments” for those becoming childminders, and relaxed rules in England to let childminders look after more children
New fitness-to-work testing regime to qualify for health-related benefits
New voluntary employment scheme for disabled people in England and Wales, called Universal Support
Tougher requirements to look for work and increased job support for lead child carers on universal credit
£63m for programmes to encourage retirees over 50 back to work, “returnerships” and skills boot camps
Immigration rules to be relaxed for five roles in construction sector, to ease labour shortages
Business and trade
Main rate of corporation tax, paid by businesses on taxable profits over £250,000, confirmed to increase from 19% to 25%
Companies with profits between £50,000 and £250,000 to pay between 19% and 25%
Companies able to deduct investment in new machinery and technology to lower their taxable profits
Tax breaks and other benefits for 12 new Investment Zones across the UK, funded by £80m each over the next five years
Reduced paperwork for international traders, who will also be given longer to submit customs forms under streamlined rules
Other measures
Commitment to raise defence spending by £11bn over the next five years
Prison sentences for those convicted of marketing tax avoidance schemes
£200m this year to help local councils in England repair potholes
An extra £10m over next two years for charities in England helping to prevent suicide
Streamlined approvals process promised for new medical products
£900m for new super computer facility, to help UK’s AI industry