Autumn Statement LIVE: Jeremy Hunt to confirm tax cuts as millions given record wage boost

Shanker Singham, co-chair of The Growth Commission, explained what his group was proposing and what impact it thought it would have on the UK economy.

He said: "The current situation in the UK is unsustainable."

Went on to outline what he claimed were the benefits of the reforms the Liz Truss-backed group is proposing.

He said: "What we've projected...is about 24 percent GDP per capita growth in 20 years".

Jeremy Hunt has roughly £20billion of headroom for tax cuts, according to the chair of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee.

Harriett Baldwin was speaking ahead of announcements to be made in the Chancellor‘s Autumn Statement today.

She told GB News: “If you look at the numbers that the Office for Budget Responsibility has been publishing each month, we think that there's probably about £20billion of headroom and that's because you and I, through those frozen tax levels and also businesses, we have actually ended up paying more tax this year than was planned in last year's budget.

“So I think that today gives the Chancellor an opportunity to give some of that back to the hard-working businesses and people of this country so that we can grow the economy more rapidly next year.”

Speaking during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, she continued: “Both the Chancellor and the Prime Minister have really made a point of emphasising and I would continue to expect to see debt falling.

“And I think really importantly it’s for them to make the contrast between the Labour Party policy of borrowing an extra £28billion a year, which of course ends up on people's tax returns in due course.

“I think there will be an opportunity today for the Chancellor to show a different economic approach to the Labour Party.”

Data from the Living Wage Foundation shows how wages have increased over the past decade.

It comes as Jeremy Hunt is set to give millions of Brits on the National Living Wage a record pay rise of more than £1,800 in his Autumn Statement announcement today.

Jeremy Hunt is being urged by the Local Government Association (LGA) to address the financial challenges facing councils in his Autumn Statement today.

Councils are facing a funding gap of £4billion over the next two years, the cross-party organisation said.

The LGA said: "We want to work with the Government on a long-term plan for greater funding certainty for councils."

Apprentice winner and small business owner Harpreet Kaur is calling on the Government to back small businesses.

Revealing her electricity costs have “tripled” over the past few years she called for a “reduction on the freeze on business rates and easier access to finance”.

Speaking to investment platform Saxo, she said: “Right now in the current economic climate there are so many challenges and pressures on small businesses, so many have already been forced to close, so many are on the brink and just managing to keep afloat. I’m really concerned that there’ll be something in the Autumn Statement that only increases those challenges.

“I think the Government needs to put a number of things in place to ensure the survival of small businesses in the future. Something like reducing or freezing business rates would really help - I know that they did this in the past with COVID-19 - more relief there would help, not increasing any tax rates or National Insurance contributions again, doing that impacts how much disposable income customers have. Less disposable income means less money spent on small businesses.”

Keir Starmer has attacked the Tories' record on tax rises ahead of Jeremy Hunt's tax-cutting Autumn Statement.

The Labour leader said: "With 25 tax rises since 2019 the Tories are the party of high tax and low growth".

"I’m proud to lead a changed Labour Party.

Labour is now the party of fiscal responsibility, the party of business and the only party with a plan to make working people better off."

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The Chancellor is set to take a leaf out of Liz Truss's playbook this lunchtime and pledge a new period of economic growth for the UK.

Jeremy Hunt is expect to promise he will "turbo charge" growth, with 110 new measures to get the economy motoring.

Mr Hunt will boast about his and the PM's work in stabilizing the ship over the last year, but acknowledge "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.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to cut National Insurance for millions of workers in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.

Mr Hunt is also expected to announce business tax cuts as well as measures to boost business investment by £20billion in a year in a vow to “get Britain growing”.

Jeremy Hunt is expected to confirm a significant boost for businesses in his budget this lunchtime, with a £9 billion permanent tax break.

He is expected to announced the permanent extension of "full expensing".

The scheme, announced in March this year and set to come to an end in 2026, allows companies to deduct all of its spending on IT equipment, plant or machinery from taxable profits.

An official has branded the policy the "biggest business tax cut in modern British history".

The OBR said in March that the policy will boost business investing by as much as 3 percent a year.

Optimism was growing last night that the state pension will increase by the full 8.5 percent under the triple lock pledge.

The uncertainty over the triple lock pension rise has been "hugely unsettling" for many older people who are struggling to make ends meet, charity groups said.

Lord Foulkes, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Older People, said: "Older people will study the Chancellor's statement with great care to make sure that there is no sleight of hand or trickery on the pension triple lock.

"This time it must be the full level of wage increase that is used to increase the pension. Anything less would be a betrayal. "The whole purpose of the triple lock is to ratchet up the basic pension from the paltry level in the UK so we start giving older people an income that is nearer our neighbours and enables them to heat their homes and feed themselves without worry."

Pressure is growing on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to axe stamp duty for "empty nester" older homeowners, who often feel trapped in oversized family homes because they can't afford all the costs involved in moving somewhere smaller.

Retired accountant Keith Robinson has done his sums and reckons downsizing is a better way of raising money from your home in retirement than resorting to equity release.

He said: "Equity release is costly, you are effectively taking on debt and the interest rate compounds pretty quickly and it erodes any inheritance."

Keith, who has had free financial coaching sessions from Bestinvest to help him manage his money, said the downside of downsizing is that it is expensive and having to pay the stamp duty land tax on the new property purchase is the final straw.

He said: ”The risk is that it all eats up most of the money you generate."

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt may postpone announcing changes to inheritance tax (IHT) as the levy is a growing revenue raiser for Government coffers.

IHT receipts from April to October reached £4.6billion, up £0.5billion compared to last year. Income from the levy increased 17 percent in 2022 compared to the year before.

Jack Gill, managing director of Final Duties, said: "There were hopes that we might see a cut to inheritance tax in this week’s Autumn Statement, although these hopes seem to have now faded, with the Government more likely to focus on other tax incentives to better boost their popularity ahead of the next general election.

"This is disappointing given that inheritance tax is arguably no longer a tax on the wealthy and more and more of us face falling foul of it as our estates grow in value and become liable.

"This is largely due to the overstimulation of the property market in recent years which has pushed house prices to record highs. With property forming the majority of the average person's estate, the increase in the value of their property is pushing them into inheritance tax territory."

As Jeremy Hunt prepares for today’s crucial budget, Brexiteer businessman Ben Habib highlighted what he claims are three crucial problems with the Chancellor’s pledge to cut taxes responsibly.

The deputy leader of Reform UK told Express.co.uk: “The first is that Government spending is less inflationary than if we ourselves spend that which is rightfully ours.

“The second is that we are profligate, the Government is not. There is scant evidence for this. Indeed, all the evidence points to Government wastefulness, fraud and ineptitude when it comes to disbursing our cash.

“The third is that the Government is responsible for managing inflation. It is not. That is the job of the Bank of England.”

All full-time workers on the National Living Wage will get a pay rise of over £1,800 a year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said.

The Treasury confirmed yesterday evening that the National Living Wage will increase by £1.02 an hour from April, from £10.42 to £11.44.

Chancellor Jeremy 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."

Jeremy Hunt is expected to fire up the economy with tax cuts to boost British business today.

Workers on the national living wage will receive an extra £1,800 a year, the largest annual increase since its introduction.

There was also optimism last night that the state pension will increase by the full 8.5 percent expected under the triple lock.

Mr Hunt will tell MPs that he will reduce state intervention and target help at businesses to “get Britain growing”.

He is 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.

“Instead we will back British business with 110 growth measures to remove planning red tape, speed up access to the national grid, support entrepreneurs raising capital, get behind our fastest growing industries, unlock foreign direct investment, boost productivity, reform welfare, level up opportunity to every corner of the country and cut business taxes.

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

Hello from Westminster and welcome to our live coverage of today's Autumn Statement.

Our political team will bring you all the latest analysis, insight and reaction as we get it.

Please refresh this page for regular updates.