Autumn 2023 Statement – What You Need To Know

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt presented his 2023 autumn statement on Wednesday 22nd November 2023. 

The key announcements are summarised below;

Salary

  • from 1 April 2024, the national living wage will increase by 9.8% to £11.44 an hour, with the age threshold lowered
    from 23 to 21 years old;
  • from 1 April 2024, the national minimum wage will be increased to £8.60 an hour for 16–17 year olds and to £6.40 an
    hour for apprentices;
  • employee National Insurance contributions (NICs) will be cut from 12% to 10% from 6 January 2024;

Self Employed

  • Class 4 NICs will be cut by 1p, from 9% to 8% from 6 April 2024;
  • Class 2 NICs will be abolished, with no-one required to pay from 6 April 2024;

Pension

  • state pension is set to increase by 8.5% in April 2024;

Limited Companies 

  • full expensing of capital expenditure will be made permanent so companies can claim 100% capital allowances on
    qualifying main rate plant and machinery investments;
  • a business rates support package worth £4.3bn will be introduced over the next five years, including a rollover of
    75% retail, hospitality and leisure relief and a freeze to the small business multiplier;
  • the existing R&D expenditure credit and small and medium enterprise (SME) scheme will be merged from 1 April
    2024;
  • the rate at which loss-making companies are taxed within the merged R&D scheme will be reduced from 25% to 19%,
    and the threshold for additional support for R&D intensive loss-making SMEs will be lowered from 40% to 30%;

Climate/Energy/Other

  • the climate change agreement scheme providing for reduced rates of climate change levy will be extended, giving
    energy intensive businesses around £300m of tax relief every year until 2033;
  • the investment zones programme and freeport tax reliefs will be extended from five years to 10 years;
  • three advanced manufacturing investment zones will be established in Greater Manchester, East Midlands, and West
    Midlands;
  • duty on all tobacco to increase by RPI plus 2%, with the rate on hand-rolling tobacco to increase by RPI plus 12%,
    from 22 November 2023; and
  • alcohol duty will be frozen until 1 August 2024.

For a more in-depth summary on the statement, please click here

For HMRCs Statement: click here