2019 United Kingdom budget

The 2019 United Kingdom budget was delivered by Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on Wednesday, 20 March 2019. This was Hammond's first budget as Chancellor, and the first budget of the Osborne government formed after David Cameron's resignation as Prime Minister in the previous year.

Key points
Throughout 2019, the UK experienced very strong economic growth, at 4.2%, the fastest rate since 1988. Despite this strong economy, the deficit had, according to The Economist "exploded" since 2015, going from £21bn (0.9% of GDP) in 2015 to £53bn (2.4% of GDP) in 2018.

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

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, following Osborne's own plans from 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 25p.
 * Duties on cigarettes were raised to £400 per kg.
 * The basic rate of VAT was raised to 22.5%.

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%