Chancellor delivers Autumn Statement

The Chancellor George Osborne today delivered his Autumn Statement to a packed Houses of Commons.

Mr Osborne spoke of creating “economic and national security” for the UK as he set out £4Tn of spending allocated by the government over the next five years.

Earlier the Chancellor had set out the government’s intention to make housebuilding its priority to deal with the “crisis of home ownership”.

In an effort to tackle the “crisis of home ownership”, Mr Osborne pledged £7Bn of funding. The housing programme will see a £4Bn investment in the ‘Help to Buy: Shared Ownership’ scheme that will see 135,000 homes built and available to households who earn less than £80,000.

Housing developers will be paid £2.3Bn directly to help first time buyers onto the property ladder by building starter homes. Buyers will receive a 20% discount on properties worth up to £250,000 (£450,000 in London).

£200M will be used deliver 10,00 new homes available with reduced rents for tenants while they save enough money for a deposit. The house will be sold after five years with the tenant given the first option to buy the property.

£400M will go towards creating 8,000 homes built with the elderly and disabled in mind.

A 3% increase in stamp duty for buy to let properties and second homes was also announced that will come into effect next year.

£2.3Bn will be spent on over 1,500 flood defence schemes that will see 300,000 homes better protected from flooding by 2021. Schemes will include improved sea defences at Rossal in Lancashire and funding to protect property in Leeds city centre.

It was announced at the Summer Budget that three million new apprenticeships will be created by 2020 and will funded by a levy on larger employers.

The levy will come into force in April 2017 at a rate of 0.5% of an employer’s wage bill. Less than 2% of UK employers will pay the levy with a £15,000 allowance for employers will mean that the levy will only be paid on employers’ wage bills over £3M.

The Northern Powerhouse will see an investment fund of £400m created to help small businesses. There will be also £13Bn investment in transport in the north of England over the course of this Parliament.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will all receive more money to be spent on infrastructure projects, with each government to decide where this will be used. This will be an increase of around 14% for Scotland, 16% for Wales and 12% for Northern Ireland.

The government said its plans to have a budget surplus f£10.1Bn is on schedule to be delivered by 2019-2020.

The Chancellor’s full Autumn Statement can be read via the Government website.

The post Chancellor delivers Autumn Statement appeared first on UK Construction Online.