UK Spring Budget 2017: key points at a glance

A brief look at the key announcements affecting your money from Chancellor Philip Hammond's 2017 Spring Budget speech.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, has delivered his first (and last) Spring Budget. Here are the key points you need to know about.

Social Care

Councils will be given a £2 billion grant over the next three years to fund social care in England.

£1 billion will be delivered in 2017/18.

Hammond has confirmed there will be a Green Paper on social care later this year but promises no 'death tax'.

Dividend Allowance

From April 2018, the tax-free Dividend Allowance will fall from £5,000 to £2,000.

National Insurance

From April 2018, Class 2 National Insurance Contributions will be scrapped as planned.

However, at the same time the main rate of Class 4 National Insurance contributions for the self-employed will increase by 1% to 10%, with a further 1% increase to 11% in April 2019.

Personal Allowance

From 6 April 2017, the tax-free personal allowance will rise by £500 to £11,500 and the threshold for higher rate tax payers will increase from £43,000 to £45,000.

The personal allowance will rise to £12,500 and the higher rate threshold will rise to £50,000 by 2020 as planned.

Savings

The ISA allowance will rise from £15,240 to £20,000 from 6 April 2017.

The new NS&I bond announced in the Autumn Statement, will be available for 12 months from April and will pay 2.2% on deposits up to £3,000.

The Lifetime ISA for people between 18 and 40 will launch as scheduled on 6 April 2017. It will allow people to save up to £4,000 a year and receive a 25% bonus worth up to £1,000 from the Government.

Duties

Vehicle Excise Duties (VED) for cars, vans and motorcycles registered before April 2017 will increase by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation.

HGV VED will be frozen from 1 April 2017.

There will also be no increases in alcohol or tobacco duties on top of those previously announced. The duty on beer, cider, wine and spirits will increase by RPI.

There will be a new minimum excise duty on cigarettes, which will take effect from May 2017.

Corporation Tax

Corporation Tax will fall to 19% from April this year. By 2020 it will fall to 17%.

Business rates

Local authorities will get a £300 million fund to help businesses impacted by the business rates revaluation.

Businesses losing small business rate relief will have their bill capped at £50 a month or £600 a year.

From April 2017, there will be a £1,000 discount on business rates bills for all pubs with a Rateable Value of less than £100,000,

Transport and infrastructure

£690 million will go to new transport projects to tackle urban congestion.

£200 million will fund local projects to build reliable fibre broadband networks and there will be a £16 million investment in new 5G mobile technology.

Free transport

Children aged 11 to 16 who get free school meals and whose parents claim Working Tax Credit will get free transport to school as long it is 2-5 miles away from their home.

Families

Up to £2,000 of tax-free childcare support will be available for children under 12 or £4,000 for disabled children up to the age of 17 by the end of the year.

Working parents in England will be able to apply for an extra 15 hours of free childcare for three and four year olds, taking the total to 30 hours a week.

There will be a £5 million fund to promote 'returnships' which will help parents return to work after a long career break. It will be open to both men and women, but expected to benefit mothers.

Education

£300 million will be provided to support 1,000 new PhD places and fellowships, focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.

£320 million funding for 110 new free schools (on top of the commitment for 500) and £216 million to be invested to help existing state schools over the next three years.

Maintenance loans worth up to £25,000 confirmed for part-time undergraduates and doctoral loans in all subjects.

New 'T-levels' to be introduced for 16-19 year olds from autumn 2019. There will be 15 different routes including construction, digital and agriculture.

The Government will also offer maintenance loans for students doing higher-level technical courses – like those available to university students.

The NHS

£325 million will be invested in the first phase of the NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans.

There will be £100 million made available to A&E departments this year to help them manage demand ahead of the next winter.

Growth

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has revised growth figures from 1.4% to 2% in 2017. It forecasts growth will be: 2% in 2017, 1.6% in 2018, 1.7% in 2019, 1.9% in 2020 and 2% in 2020.

Inflation

The OBR forecasts inflation to rise to 2.4% this year before dropping to 2.3% next year and 2% in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Borrowing

UK public sector borrowing forecasts as a percentage of GDP have been lowered since the Autumn Statement. The OBR now forecasts:

2016/17 - £51.7 billion

2017/18 - £58.3 billion

2018/19 - £40.8 billion

2019/20 - £21.4 billion

2020/21 - £20.6 billion

2021/22 - £16.8 billion

Debt

Although borrowing is lower than forecast this year and next Britain still has a debt of nearly £1.7 trillion, which amounts to around £62,000 for every household in the country.

UK debt as a proportion of GDP is forecasted to be:

2016/17 - 86.6%

2017/18 - 88.8%

2018/19 - 88.5%

2019/20 - 86.9%

2020/21 - 83%

2021/22 - 79.8%