George Osborne announces Autumn Statement
Tuesday, 29 November 2011 02:14
Chancellor George Osborne has been announcing the information about this year's Autumn Statement in parliament.
Many of the statements had been anticipated and related to a slowdown of GDP growth, but some of the new measures were unexpected.
• Mr Osborne said borrowing would run to £112 billion more over the next four years than originally forecast, but debt interest payments would be 22 billion less than expected.
Although he insisted another recession is not predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility, GDP growth has been revised down to 0.9 per cent this year and 0.7 per cent in 2012.
However, Britain's books will not be balanced again in time for the next election.
• The 3p rise in fuel duty has now been cancelled to ease the strain on British motorists.
• Public sector pay is to be frozen for the next two years and will only rise by one per cent for the two years after that in order to provide fairness to the taxpayer.
• The rise in the pension age to 67 is now to start eight years earlier than planned, in 2026 rather than 2034, meaning many more people will have to work longer before they retire.
• The administration of income tax and national insurance may be merged, while the capital gains tax threshold will be frozen.
• More funds will be put forward to help first-time buyers obtain mortgages, while the right-to-buy scheme is to be "reinvigorated", after the chancellor claimed it had been "strangled" by Labour.
• To attempt to cut unemployment, a Youth Contract is to be offered to young people out of work for more than three months.
"Our plan is to ensure we keep Britain safe from the sovereign debt crisis and we will do what is necessary to meet our fiscal target," said a statement from Downing Street on the statement.
Further analysis on the statement will be produced later in the day.
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