Spring 2017 Budget

The Chancellor’s Budget on 8 March was the first of two due in 2017. The final spring Budget came little more than three months after an Autumn Statement that suggested government finances had taken a post-referendum turn for the worse. However, the latest short-term economic numbers turned out much better than the Office for Budgetary Responsibility’s (OBR’s) November projections.
This good news gave the Chancellor a little ‘wriggle room’, but instead he chose to offset some modest increases in spending – mostly focused on social care – with tax and NIC rises mainly aimed at the self-employed. For once, the volume of Budget documents issued by the Treasury shrank significantly, but there were still some surprises to be found in the detail.Spring 2017 Budget Summary