Budget 2009
Queens Speeches and Budgets
Budget 2009
Alistair Darling announced his budget at a challenging time for Britain, and showed Labour’s determination to help Britain come out of the hard times, easing the pain of recession and boosting spending in key areas. The budget was also the first Carbon Budget, outlining new measures to help fight climate change.
Help for those who need it
- The basic state pension will rise by 2.5%
- The VAT rate discount to 15% will be extended until September
- Statutory redundancy pay increases from £350 to £380 per week per year of service
- Child tax credit child element increased £20pa
- Grandparents caring for young relatives can build up pension credits
Help for jobs and business
- From January 2010, anyone under 25 who has been unemployed for over a year will be offered a job placement or training
- An extra £1.7bn for the Jobcentre network
- £260m more for training and subsidies
- £2,000 subsidy for those trading in cars over 10 years old
- A new strategic investment fund will give £400m to help struggling business improve their future
- New tax relief for business investment
Help for housing
- £500m extra support for housing industry, including an extra £100m for council housing
- The stamp duty holiday for houses under £175,000 will be extended until the end of the year
- £80m more for HomeBuy Direct, the shared equity scheme
- £50m to improve housing for armed forces
A carbon budget
- The new £2,000 car scrapage grant will take old, polluting cars off the road
- Britain will reduce emissions 35% by 2020
- Extra £435m for supporting energy efficiency measures
- Extra £525m for supporting offshore windpower projects
Tax measures
- Tobacco tax will increase now by 2%,
- Fuel duty will increase by 2p per litre
- The new highest rate tax band will still start at £150,000, but the rate will rise to 50%, and personal allowances will be eliminated for the highest earners
- Pension tax relief will be tapered to the standard 20% rate for those earning over £150,000
- Tax avoidance measures used by large UK companies will be closed off, raising up to £4bn