Autumn Statement: Chancellor targets key election seats

Autumn Statement: Chancellor targets key election seats

BBC Wales political reporter

UK Parliament/PA

Spending announcements targeting key general election seats in Wales have been announced by the chancellor.

They include a new Investment Zone in north east Wales, where Jeremy Hunt will pay a visit on Thursday.

There is also tax relief for freeports in Anglesey and Pembrokeshire - and £500,000 for the Hay Festival in the Brecon and Radnorshire constituency.

Mr Hunt's Autumn Statement includes a National Insurance cut from 6 January.

The main employee rate will fall by 2 percentage points from 12% to 10%.

As a result of his spending plans, the Welsh government will receive an extra £305m to spend on the public services it is responsible for, over the current financial year and for 2024-25.

Those services include health, education, social services and roads.

The National Living Wage is increasing by 9.8% for over-23s from April. with minimum pay rising by 12.4% for workers aged 21 and 22.

The chancellor told MPs he was extending tax reliefs for Freeports from five years to 10 years following "tenacious representations" including from Ynys Môn Conservative MP Virginia Crosbie.

There was also a boost for space research, manufacturing and testing facilities in Wales with a new "Space Clusters Infrastructure Fund" from the UK Space Agency.

Almost £8m will go to Cardiff-based Space Forge for a National Microgravity Research Centre, and £800,000 to Snowdonia LLP to develop the Space Technology Test Centre at the Snowdonia Space Centre in Llanbedr.

National Insurance

The UK government says 1.2 million workers in Wales will receive an average saving of £324 a year with the cuts to National Insurance (NI) in January.

The main NI rate falls from 12% to 10% and Class 2 NI - paid by self-employed people earning more than £12,570 - will be scrapped.

Class 4 National Insurance for self employed - paid on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 - will be cut from 9% to 8% from April.

Welfare benefits

Benefits will increase next year by 6.7%, the inflation rate for September.

This applies to working-age benefits, such as means-tested benefits such as universal credit, and disability benefits.

It is an important announcement for the more than 250,000 households in Wales on universal credit, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions.

There were suggestions the chancellor would instead use the lower 4.6%. inflation figure for October.

There will also be a rise for people receiving housing benefit or the housing element of universal credit for privately rented properties, around 180,000 households in Wales.

The sum they receive is decided by a formula called the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), which has been frozen since 2020 despite rents rising sharply.

Mr Hunt said he will increase LHA by the 30th percentile of local market rents, giving households an average of £800 of support next year.

Mr Hunt confirmed what's called the "triple-lock" for state pension rises will apply next year as usual, raising the state pension by 8.5%, which is in line with average earnings.

The increase is worth up to £900 more a year, which he called "one of the largest ever cash increases to the state pension".

Minimum wage

The minimum wage, which employers are mandated to pay by law and is officially called the National Living Wage, will increase by more than a pound next April to £11.44 per hour.

It is currently £10.42 an hour for workers aged over 23.

The new rate will also apply to 21 and 22-year-olds for the first time. The UK Treasury says 130,000 workers in Wales will benefit from the increase.

Minimum pay for 18-20 year olds will increase by £1.11 hourly to £8.60 per hour, with a further 10,000 workers expected to receive that rise.