Further anouncements made by the Chancellor included:

 Property

Help to Buy Scheme

The Chancellor referred to the UK as an  ‘aspiration nation’ and in a nod to the UK’s aspiring home owners,  launched the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme, providing a government backed equity loan of up to 20% of the new property’s value. The scheme will be in place for three years and the loan is repayable once the home is sold. Loans will be interest free for the first 5 years and the other conditions at the moment include:

• Available to all, not just first time buyers
• Property value  must be less than £600,000
• 5% personal deposit required
• No income cap constraint

Social Care Funding Reform

Recognising the high costs of residential care for the elderly, more people will get access to financial support towards reasonable residential care costs. This is to be capped at £72,000 and aims to prevent many from seeing their life savings wiped out by this cost or the sale of homes.

Beer & Fuel – the highlights!

Beer Tax

Duty rates on beer will decrease from Sunday as follows:

• 6% for low strength beer
• 2% for standard strength beer
• 0.75% for high strength beer

As previously advised, duty rates are increasing for spirits, wine and cider by 2% above the rate of inflation, being:

• 10p increase to a bottle of wine
• 38p increase to a bottle of spirits
• 2p increase to a litre of cider

Fuel tax

• September’s rise in fuel duty has been cancelled
• Petrol now 13p a litre cheaper than if the Government had not acted in the last two years
• Saving is equivalent to £7 off every time you fill up for the average Vauxhall Astra or Ford Focus

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