2019 United Kingdom budget

The 2019 United Kingdom budget was delivered by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on Wednesday, 20 March 2019. This was Osborne's last budget as Chancellor, and the last budget of the Cameron government formed after the 2015 general election.

Key points
Throughout 2019, the UK experienced very strong economic growth, at 3.7%, the fastest rate since 1997. Despite this strong economy, the deficit had, after falling dramatically in the period 2010-2016, steadily grown since 2016 and now stood at 3.4% of GDP, which The Economist noted, was bigger than at any time during Tony Blair's premiership.

As such, it was widely expected before the budget that there would be some tax rises or spending cuts in the budget, after some years of fiscal laxity.

The OBR forecast that the economy would grow by 3.7% in 2019, 3.4% in 2020 and 3% in the following two years. Inflation would stand at 2.4%, before rising to 2.9% in 2020, and then falling to 2% in 2021, and 1.4% in 2022

Taxes
Despite rises in some indirect taxes, overall government revenue was expected to only increase by around £12bn to £687bn, with the proportion of tax to GDP falling by over 1%. This is partially due to the cuts to direct taxation, such as the abolition of the top rate of income tax, and the decision to cut capital gains tax. The Economist called the rises in tax "regressive" and predicted that they would impact the poorest families the most, but recognised the effort to reduce the deficit as "necessary, especially considering another recession could well be possible in one or two years".
 * The top rate of income tax was abolished, in line with plans announced in the 2018 budget
 * The income tax personal allowance was raised to £12,700, to be increased incrementally to £15,000 by 2023.
 * Capital gains tax was cut to 10%.
 * Alcohol duty was raised to 30p.
 * Duties on cigarettes were raised to £400 per kg.
 * VAT was simplified to a flat rate of 20% on all items (with some exemptions).

Spending

 * An additional £10bn was allocated to the NHS
 * Funding for education was increased by £5bn
 * The post-tax deduction taper rate on Universal Credit was reduced to 62%