Universal Credit
The Universal Credit fix, or attempt to fix the worst problems - govt removing the 7-day waiting period, extending repayment period for advances, any claimant will get housing benefit for another 2 weeks - package to ease concerns is 1.5 billion.
Living wage increase confirmed
Rises to the National Living Wage from April are confirmed. It will rise 4.4%, from £7.50 an hour to £7.83 - giving full-time workers a further £600 pay increase.
Homelessness
The chancellor says it "cannot be right" to leave properties empty "when so many are desperate for a place to live".
Local authorities will now have the power to charge a 100% council tax premium on empty properties.
The government is also launching "a consultation on barriers to longer tenancies in the private rented sector, and how we might encourage landlords to offer them to those tenants who want the extra security".
On rough sleeping, he says it is "unacceptable that in 21st century Britain there are people sleeping on the streets". The government will invest £28m in three new “Housing First” pilots in the West Midlands, Manchester and Liverpool in response.
And the government will establish a homelessness taskforce in a bid to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it by 2027.
Other points:
1. £65bn hit to tax receipts: Tax receipts have been downgraded by £65.4 billion over the five-year period compare to previous forecasts from the March Budget. By 2021-22, annual public sector receipts will be £28bn less than previously forecast (OBR November 2017, , p.13, compared with OBR March 2017, link, p.11).
2. Slashed wages: The OBR now expects wages to rise by just 2.3% next year, down from 2.7% previously. Pay increases now aren’t expected to hit 3% (the current inflation rate) until 2021, a whole year later (
link, p.11).
3. Higher borrowing: Forecast public borrowing by 2021-22 has increased by £53 billion, from £134 billion to £187 billion .
4. Stamp duty: The OBR predicts the cut to stamp duty will increase house prices and will only lead to an additional 3,500 first-time buyers.
5. Universal Credit: Additional funding for Universal Credit will not come into effect before January 2017, leaving many vulnerable families at risk of being plunged into poverty this Christmas.
6. Social Housing: Philip Hammond did not once mention the need to build more social housing or replace council houses sold off under Right to Buy. This is despite the latest figures showing that since April 2015, 28,011 council houses have been sold under Right to Buy only 8,113 replaced.
7. Delayed infrastructure funding: The biggest funding announcement today, the additional extra £7bn for the National Productivity Investment Fund, will only be provided in 2022-23.
8. Police: No extra funding was provided for the police, despite a steep rise in violent crime and police forces facing a £413m real-terms cut in 2017/18.
9. Social care: Social care was not mentioned once in Philip Hammond's speech, and no additional funding was provided. This is despite more than a million vulnerable older people are already missing out on vital support that they need.
10. Public Sector Pay: Teachers and police officers will be left £3,000 worse off by 2020 due to the Chancellor's refusal to lift the public sector pay freeze.
Image: Hammond's 'make or break' budget.
