On Monday 29^th October 2018, Philip Hammond delivered the Budget 2018, his third one as chancellor. His 72-minute speech started with him highlighting the hard work done by British people is paying off, heralding an end to the era of austerity.

Below are some of the key points that were brought to light at the Budget 2018.

Brexit

The chancellor announced an additional £500 million for government departments, in preparation of Brexit. This extra amount is on top of the £2.2 billion that had previously been declared, and the £1.5 billion increase declared at the spring statement.

A commemorative 50 pence coin to mark the UK’s departure from the EU, with the wording “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations”, was also announced.

Economic Growth

Growth for 2018 was forecasted to be 1.3% by Philip Hammond, in the Budget. He went on further to report the forecast for the upcoming years, with the economy growing by 1.6% in 2019, 1.4% in 2020, 1.4% in 2021, 1.5% in 2022 and 1.6% in 2023.

These figures, predicting the economic growth for the upcoming years, were higher than what he had reported in March at the spring statement, predicting 1.3% for 2019, 1.3% for 2020, 1.4% for 2021 and 1.5% in 2022.

Wages and personal taxation

The personal tax-free threshold, which is the rate at which people start paying income tax at 20%, was announced as rising from £11,850 to £12,500 in April 2019, a year earlier than expected. Moreover, the higher rate income tax threshold, the point at which people start paying tax at 40% will increase too, from £46,350 to £50,000.

It was also stated that the National Living Wage would rise by 4.9%, from £7.83 to £8.21 an hour.

Allowance for the Individual Savings Account (ISA) will remain at £20,000, but will increase for Junior ISA’s in line with CPI inflation to £4,368 and the same limit will apply to Child Trust Funds (CTFs).

Schools and health care

An extra £400 million “bonus” was announced for schools, for the upcoming financial year. This would result in an additional £10,000 per primary school and £50,000 per secondary school, on average. Mr Hammond also said that ten University Enterprise Zones were going to receive funding.

It was confirmed by the chancellor the NHS are to receive £20.5 billion pounds over the next five years. He stated there would be a minimum of £2 billion a year for mental health services, new mental health crisis centres to support incidents and emergencies nationwide, more metal health ambulances and a 24-hour mental health crisis hotline too.

There was also a promise of £700 million extra for councils to use to help care for the elderly and those with disabilities, and £10 million for the air ambulance.

Businesses

Philip Hammond also announced a new digital services tax of 2% on UK revenues of big technology companies, from April 2020, which will likely be implemented for companies such as Amazon, Netflix, Google, Facebook etc.

The chancellor also said that for all companies with a rateable value of £51,000 or less the government will cut their business rates bill by one third. There was also promise of provisions of £675 million to create a “future high streets fund” for councils to access to redevelop their high streets.

Housing

In the Budget 2018 it was also mentioned that the government will make available a further £500 million for their infrastructure fund, which is currently standing at £5.5 billion. This will unlock 650,000 homes.

These are some of the main highlights from the Budget 2018. If you are interested in taking a more in-depth look at the proceedings you can visit the government’s website, where the full budget is available for you to read.

We’re delighted to share the news that we are going to be taking part in the MoneyFacts Awards 2018!

MoneyFacts Group’s highly coveted awards are totally independent. They are presented annually for product excellence and outstanding service, covering products from across a range of financial services.

To help us make the finalist stage (and go on to win!) we need you to vote for us. Advisers are invited to vote for our products and service levels. Voting will take place online, and you will also be entered into a prize draw by MoneyFacts, to win a HP Sprocket Mobile Photo Printer (terms and conditions can be found here).

The questions are based on your relationship with us over the previous 12 months. Please complete the survey before midnight on Friday 18 May 2018, for your vote to be counted and to be in with a chance of winning the prize.

Please vote for us by clicking the image below:

Antony Uttley, our Head of Distribution, said:

“This award will reinforce the level of service we aim to provide for our advisers. As a mutual society advisers are crucial in the business we do and we are always looking for ways to provide better levels of service for them, therefore it means even more that they are the ones who get to vote in these awards.”

As part of the voting process, advisers can also enter themselves into the competition too, for the following categories:

• Tax and Estate Planner of the Year
• Retirement Adviser of the Year
• Protection Adviser of the Year
• Investment Adviser of the Year
• Equity Release Adviser of the Year

The shortlist will be announced in June and the final winners will all be announced at the awards event in London on the 19^th September 2018.

We are delighted to share that we have been shortlisted for the ‘Best Small Insurer’ award in the Insurance Investment Exchange Awards 2018, for the second time. Last year we were overjoyed to have won the award and are hopeful for the same result this year.

The Insurance Investment Exchange (IIE) Awards shine the spotlight on the vital work carried out within insurance investment teams, along with asset managers and service providers, as they manage assets worth billions of pounds.

The ‘Best Small Insurer’ award, recognises the challenges faced by small insurers in particular, in today’s turbulent environment. The award will be won by the company whose investment portfolios deliver real value, while minimising the growing resource demands of navigating an increasingly complex and volatile environment.

Therefore, being shortlisted alone for this prestigious award, is a huge honour for us.

Also shortlisted for this award are British Friendly Society and Canopius. The entries will be scrutinised by an independent panel of judges consisting of experts from the industry.

The winners will be announced at the awards event which will be held on the 26^th of April, 2018, in London. You can check back with us after then to see how we got on. Wish us luck!