2015 United Kingdom budget

The 2015 United Kingdom summer budget was delivered by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on Wednesday, 8 July 2015.

This was the first budget of the Second Cameron government, and the sixth budget presented by George Osborne.

Background
The background to the budget was that of significant economic growth at 3%.

The budget proposes spending of £727 billion and an income of £670 billion in 2015-16; a deficit of £57 billion (8% of UK public spending and around 3% of GDP).

The budget passed with a majority of 30 votes (334 votes for, 290 against with 36 abstentions).

All Conservative MPs voted for the budget (with 9 abstentions). The Labour party voted against the bill with 19 MPs abstaining.

Measures

 * £750 million extra granted to HM Revenue and Customs to tackle tax avoidance
 * Income tax personal allowance raised by 2%, and the 40% threshold raised by £9,550 to £60,100
 * Ordoliberal measures to introduce tax incentives for large corporations to create apprenticeships, aiming for 3 million new apprenticeships by 2020.
 * The rate of Corporation tax was cut from 19% to 18%.
 * Benefit cap reduced to £20,000 in London and £17,000 in the rest of the country.
 * Starting in April 2016, the Dividend Tax Credit will be removed and replaced with a tax-free Dividend Allowance of £5,000 for all taxpayers, with new rates of tax for dividend income above that amount.
 * The income threshold on tax credits was reduced from £6,420 to £3,850 from April 2016
 * Confirmation that the BBC has agreed to absorb the £650m cost of providing free television licences for over-75s.