BUSINESS TAX: Business will have tax deductions for investment made permanent, cutting companies’ tax bills by £250,000 for every £1 million invested, one of the biggest tax cuts for business in history.

Tax relief for freeports and investment zones is to be extended from five to 10 years and three more investment zones are to be introduced in the West Midlands, the East Midlands and Greater Manchester.

LIVING WAGE: The living wage is to be increased to £11.44 an hour, a rise of about 10 per cent.

LIVING STANDARDS:  The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that living standards will be 3.5 per cent below pre-pandemic levels in 2025, while unemployment will rise to 1.6 million.

NATIONAL INSURANCE:  National Insurance for employees is to be cut from 12 per cent to 10 per cent from January 2024, saving a worker on average income about £450 a year. 

National insurance payments are to be axed or reduced for the self-employed, saving workers up to £350 a year.

PENSIONS:  The triple lock, under which pensions rise by whichever is higher of earnings, inflation or 2 per cent, was maintained. The state pension will rise by 8.5 per cent next April, worth up to £900 a year.

Employers will now to be required to make pension payments into a new hire’s existing pension pot.

ALCOHOL: Duty on beer, wine, cider and spirits will be frozen until August 2024 in a move presented as helping the pub trade.

WELFARE: Benefit payments, including universal credit, will rise by 6.7 per cent in line with September’s inflation figure.

BENEFIT CLAMPDOWN: Targeting sick and disabled workers, workers will be told to look for work they can do from home and will have to take part in a compulsory work placement after 18 months. They will lose benefits altogether if they fail to engage with “the work search process.”

HOUSING:  The local housing allowance will be increased after a three-year freeze, giving some renters an extra £800 a year, and river pollution rules diluted to make housebuilding easier for developers.

MILITARY:  The government will continue to meet Nato demands for 2 per cent of GDP being spent on the military.

GROWTH:  Britain’s economy is 1.8 per cent larger than it was pre-pandemic, but fears of a recession remain. Growth projections for the next three years have been downgraded by the Office for Budget responsibility, however.

INVESTMENT: A £4.5 billion fund is to be made available to boost investment in sectors such as electric car manufacture and life sciences.