2017 United Kingdom budget

The 2017 United Kingdom budget was delivered by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on Wednesday, 8 March 2017. This was the second budget of the Cameron government since the 2015 general election, and Osborne's eighth budget as Chancellor.

Government borrowing

 * It fell to £28.1bn in 2016-17, £4.4bn less than forecast in the previous budget.
 * The deficit was forecast to fall to £23.4bn in 2017-18, £15.3bn in 2018-19, and £8.1bn in 2019-20, before achieving a surplus of £0.4bn in 2020-21.

GDP

 * The UK remained as the world's 5th largest economy.
 * It was expected to overtake Germany as the 4th largest by 2030.

Economic growth

 * Economic growth was forecast at 2.8% in 2017, up from the previous forecast of 2.6%
 * Forecast at 2.6% in 2018, 2.4% in 2019, 2.1% in 2020, 2.3% in 2021, 2.4% in 2022.

NHS

 * £10bn of extra funding was allocated to the NHS.
 * £5.3bn of additional capital investment into frontline services.

Pensions

 * The pension 'triple lock' will be replaced with a 'double lock' which guarantees an increase of the highest of either inflation or 2.5%
 * The "lifetime allowance" on pension contributions will increase by £50,000, from £1m to £1.05m from April 2018.

Universal Credit

 * The post-tax deduction taper rate was cut from 68% to 60%

Income tax

 * The 40p income tax threshold was raised again by £2,000, from £65,550 to £67,550.
 * The income tax personal allowance was increased by 2% to £7,419, from £7,273.

Excise duties

 * Fuel duty was to remain frozen
 * A consultation was launched into simplifying the system for alcohol and tobacco duties.

Corporation tax

 * The headline corporation tax rate was cut from 17% to 16%, to be cut further to 15% in 2019.

IR35

 * The Office for Tax Simplification shall renew its review into the IR35 tax system.

Stamp duty

 * The stamp duty threshold was raised to £300,000 for first-time buyers from April, and then for all buyers from April 2018.

Business rates

 * Business rates will be revalued according to the Consumer Prices Index, rather than the Retail Prices Index.
 * Future revaluations will take place every three years, rather than five.

Responses

 * The NHS said it did not meet demands.
 * The Chancellor boasted "significant investments for the future"
 * The Office for Budget Responsibility expected the economy growing by 2.7% in 2017–18 and 2.4% in 2018–19, down from the previous estimate of 2.9% and 2.5%, respectively.
 * Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn issued a speech highly critical of the budget in Parliament.

Debate
A debate was held in House of Commons on 8 March 2017. During Jeremy Corbyn's response to the budget, Tory Whip Andrew Griffiths heckled him over his comments on the lack of adequate Government funding for care homes. Labour MPs accused Griffiths of ageism and abusive language for shouting that Corbyn belonged in a care home. Griffiths denied this, instead suggesting that he was responding to Corbyn's statement "there are elderly people in need of help," and that he said: "That's you!". Corbyn responded with the comment: "The uncaring, uncouth attitude of certain members of parliament needs to be called out".