Live updates as chancellor George Osborne delivers the first Conservative Budget since 1996

Hello and welcome to the live feed of today’s Budget announcement. Expect typos, occasional despair but hopefully some useful insight as George Osborne reveals what he has hidden in that big red box of his. Please manually refresh your browser for the real live experience!

So that’s it. Some big announcement there…

• New National Living Wage that is compulsory will come in from £7.20 next year and reach £9 by 2020.
• Corporation Tax will be reduced to 18% by 2020. 
• Permanent non-dom status scrapped for those who have spent 15 of the last 20 years in the UK. 

National Living Wage to reach £9ph by 2020. Living Wage to be compulsory and. Huge!

Tax-free personal allowance to be increased to £11,000. ‘Downpayment in goal to reach the £12,500 target’.

£43,000 for highest rate of income tax.

Income tax, NI and VAT lock to be enforced. 

When talking about benefits Osborne says: “We spend more on family benefits in Britain than Germany France or Sweden.” Some people will be shocked by this but others will see it as a badge of honour for the UK. Very tricky subject.

As announced in the election manifesto, parents of 3-4-year-olds will receive free childcare up to 30 hours per week. Good news for working parents.

Working age benefits frozen for four years. Maternity and disability payments ring-fenced.

Tax credits in the firing line…

Some are saying they are disappointed Inheritance Tax isn’t being raised straight away, as some expected. Must be frustrating for those who have been recently bereaved.

Welfare cuts. Uh-oh…

Corporation tax down to 18% by 2020. 

I’m not going to lie, I don’t really understand these pensions reforms. Sorry! I think it’s good for older people. £17,000 per year tax free in pension income can’t be bad right?

More pensions reforms. Nothing hugely for employers to worry about in this round, not like auto-enrolment for example, but something to be wary of. Feed went down so will give a real update when up and running again! 

From 2017 inheritance tax allowance to be scaled back. Pass on up to £1m to children free ox tax. ‘Tax paid only by the rich.’ That one will split opinion hugely across the country.

That Northern Oyster ticketing idea sounds great. For too long regions that are geographically close have been disconnected.

£30m of funding for a body that connects Northern regions will Oyster-style ticketing system. Also bigger powers for the Midlands and Cornwall.

Osborne mentions Northern Powerhouse to howls of derision from those who think he has abandoned it by delaying rail works. 

Lots of campuses will be up in arms at that news. But others will see it as a real step forward. 

Student maintenance grants, as expected, abolished and replaced with loans. Osborne points out Labour themselves did this being u-turning when in govt. Students won’t have to start paying back until they earn £21,000. 

Apprenticeship levy for all large firms. 3 million more apprenticeships targeted. Money directly controlled by employers. 

New roads fund. All cash raised from road duty will go back into investment in the roads. Good news for infrastructure fans. And drivers of course. Bad news for those who rely on trains though.

Clarification on the non-dom announcement. May have got a bit excited earlier. What was really said was:

“From 2017, non-doms who’ve spent 15 of the last 20 years in the UK will pay the same tax as everyone else. The new rules will raise £1.5bn.”

Victoria Cross and George Cross annual acuity quadroupled to £10,000. Popularist but no doubt our armed forces deserve it.

Raise of insurance premium tax to 9.5% from this November. 

That’s what makes Osborne such a canny politician though.

Labour must be gutted. He’s won the election and then got the credit for implementing their policy!

Permanent non-dom tax status abolished from Apr 17! Big news! 

Awkward moment when Osborne has to mention off-shore tax investment. Channel 4 really stitched him up last night.

Tax evasion measures coming up. Will big businesses finally have to pay their way?

Only 1% continued pay rises for public sector. Look out for more strikes folks.

For all my sniping Osborne does have some pretty decent economic figures to call upon. 

Running at a surplus is fine if you can work with the OBR to decide when this needs to be done. The OBR have batted that ball firmly back at the Chancellor’s feet though. So I’m not sure they’ll thank him for being mentioned in his plans again.

‘Fix the roof while the sin is shining’. Yawn, get a new catchphrase George…

Osborne on to his pet subject of running the economy at a surplus. Still a very long way to go before we get there though, despite the long list of figures he reels off.

‘Business investment up 31.9% since 2010.’ But what type of businesses are being invested in?

Chancellor seems determined to talk about investment in business. Let’s see if there are any genuine policies to back up his bold talk.

‘This part of the world shall not price itself out of the market’. Interesting anti-EU stance from Osborne…

First mention of productivity. ‘We don’t train enough or invest enough’. Hard to argue with!

Osborne’s usual platitudes normally take some time to get through but be patient. More substantial news hopefully coming!

Osborne is on his feet and the Summer Budget is about to begin. Let’s see what he has to say…

Here’s what we know so far…

Poor productivity is one of the three main issues Osborne has to address today (see below). Back in January a report claimed it is not just localised to the UK. Boosting it has been mooted as the key to driving growth globally. So we’ll be hoping it can be improved by any measures announced today. 

Another area that small business owners will be looking closely at is AIA. Here’s a summary of what it is. Will it be extended beyond 31 December 2015?

Osborne is expected to make some serious cuts to working tax credits, to be balanced out with a higher income before paying tax. But will employers still have to pick up some of the slack?

One thing we know is that retail spaces (shops essentially) with a square footage of more than 3,000 will have their six-hour Sunday opening restrictions relaxed. This will, we expect, largely be at the discretion of local authorities to police. 

Some think this may cause problems for small independent stores as larger names eat into their Sunday evening profits. 

Business leaders will be looking to Osborne to speak about three main issues, from what we understand. We look at all three here. 

One entrepreneur and investment champion we spoke to wants the chancellor to reintroduce Taper Relief. Long shot? Yes, but Osborne does like to announce at least one curve-ball in his Budget speeches. 

Here’s a quick reminder of what happened in the last Budget in March and how the business world reacted to it. Now that there are no coalition partners will he change tack or is it likely to be more of the same?