Autumn Statement: Jeremy Hunt to cut business tax in plans 'to get Britain growing'

The Chancellor has pledged to set out “major plan” in the Autumn Statement.

Jeremy Hunt is set to cut taxes and announce a £20 billion investment in business to “get Britain growing” in his Autumn Statement, as the Scottish Government revealed it had already been forced to make £680 million in savings ahead of next month’s Budget.

The Chancellor will set out Government plans on Wednesday afternoon, where he will promise to grow the economy, return inflation to 2 per cent, and outline a sweeping reform of the benefits system.

It comes as Labour accused the Tories of “13 years of failure”, and the SNP repeated calls for ministers to restore the £400 energy bill rebate.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will announce tax cuts for businesses on Wednesday.

In what could be his last Autumn Statement ahead of a general election next year, Mr Hunt is expected to announce tax cuts for business, and also be considering slashing inheritance tax.

And any tax cuts, particularly for business, will place added pressure on the Scottish Government to follow suit in next month’s Budget. That pressure would come as Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Shona Robison said she had been forced to make “exceptionally difficult decisions” as she revealed Humza Yousaf’s Government has had to make £680m in savings from this year’s budget.

Ms Robison said while the “savings and funding prioritisation” had been required, she had sought to protect spending on the NHS and investment in “key programmes” such as the Scottish Child Payment, which provides cash help for children in low-income families.

She blamed “prolonged Westminster austerity” for the financial situation, as she said Scotland and the other devolved administrations had urged the UK Government to find additional cash “to support the management of pressures we all face”.

Her plea came after the Scottish Government spent around £800m more than had been budgeted for on pay deals for public sector workers in 2023/24.

Mr Hunt is expected to say in delivering the Autumn Statement: “After a global pandemic and energy crisis, we have taken difficult decisions to put our economy back on track. We have supported families with rising bills, cut borrowing and halved inflation. The economy has grown. Real incomes have risen. Our plan for the British economy is working.

“But the work is not done. Conservatives know that a dynamic economy depends less on the decisions and diktats of ministers than on the energy and enterprise of the British people.”

Tory MPs have made extensive calls for tax cuts, demands that have only grown louder following the fall of the UK inflation rate to 4.6 per cent in October, down from 10.7 per cent in the final three months of last year.

Virtually all Conservative MPs believe the overall tax burden is too high, but the Prime Minister and Mr Hunt have repeatedly stressed the need to balance tax cuts with fiscal responsibility and “balancing the books”.

The Autumn Statement will also include what the UK Government are calling “110 growth measures”, including removing planning red tape, speeding up access to the national grid, backing entrepreneurs, unlocking foreign direct investment, boosting productivity and reforming welfare.

Mr Hunt is also expected to say: “In today’s Autumn Statement for Growth, the Conservatives will reject big government, high spending and high tax because we know that leads to less growth, not more.

“Taken together we will increase business investment in the UK economy by around £20 billion a year over the next decade and get Britain growing.”

Mr Hunt has already confirmed a £2.5 billion “Back to Work Plan”, which will threaten new benefit sanctions for those with physical disabilities or mental health issues who can work but choose not to.

The Treasury has already announced that the national living wage will rise to £11.44 in April next year. Currently £10.42 for workers aged over 23, the new figure will apply to 21 and 22-year-olds for the first time. National minimum wage for 18 to 20-year-olds will also increase by £1.11 to £8.60 per hour, the Government has said.

Apprentices will have their minimum hourly rates boosted, with an 18-year-old in an industry like construction seeing their minimum hourly pay increase by over 20%, going from £5.28 to £6.40 an hour.

Mr Hunt said: “Next April all full-time workers on the National Living Wage will get a pay rise of over £1,800 a year. That will end low pay in this country, delivering on our manifesto promise. The National Living Wage has helped halve the number of people on low pay since 2010, making sure work always pays.”

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed the Tories could not be trusted, insisting it was her party that were fiscally responsible.

She said: “After 13 years of economic failure under the Conservatives, working people are worse off. Prices are still rising in the shops, energy bills are up and mortgage payments are higher after the Conservatives crashed the economy.

“The 25 Tory tax rises since 2019 are the clearest sign of economic failure, with households paying £4,000 more in tax each year than they did in 2010. The Conservatives have become the party of high tax because they are the party of low growth. Nothing the Chancellor says or does in his Autumn Statement can change their appalling record.

“Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, the Labour Party has changed. Labour is now the party of fiscal responsibility, we are the party of business and we are the only party with a plan to make working people better off.”

Elsewhere, the SNP claimed the Chancellor must deliver support for all this winter by bringing back the £400 energy rebate, saying an income tax reduction would not go far enough for many.

SNP economy spokesperson Drew Hendry said: “A cut to income tax won’t help the majority through the Westminster cost-of-living crisis – that is why the Chancellor must bring back the £400 energy bill rebate and scrap standing charges, to ensure families don’t have to choose between heating and eating this winter.

"Energy bills, mortgages, rents and food prices remain sky high and aren’t predicted to fall any time soon. The Chancellor must follow Scotland’s lead and deliver broad-based cost of living support that will give the majority of families immediate help.

"Whilst the SNP Government is helping families in Scotland with the council tax freeze and Scottish Child Payment, the Westminster Government has hammered households with Tory cuts, Brexit and economic incompetence. Scotland urgently needs powers over energy, employment and the economy, so Scotland can act when Westminster refuses".

The Scottish Greens said the proposals must put the planet at their heart. The party’s Scottish Greens climate spokesperson Mark Ruskell said: “With everything from destructive wildfires to terrible floods, this has been a year of climate chaos in Scotland and around the world.

“Yet, while the crisis has got worse, we have seen a fossil-fuel obsessed Tory government that is gleefully backtracking on its environmental commitments and dishing out new oil and gas licences.

“This Autumn Statement must be when that changes. We cannot negotiate with science and cannot keep doubling down on oil and gas and allow extreme weather events to become even more common. For the Tories to keep going as they are would be a huge act of environmental vandalism.

“This could be Rishi Sunak’s final Autumn Statement. How does he want it to be remembered? Will he carry on with business as usual or will he surprise us all by being ambitious, rising to the challenge and leaving a climate legacy to be proud of?”