Lower National Insurance payments, a boost to the minimum wage and what the Chancellor claimed to be “the largest business tax cut in modern British history” were unveiled by Jeremy Hunt this afternoon in the Commons.
He also stood by the controversial “triple lock” boost to state pensions and took a “carrot and stick” approach to cutting spending on working-age benefits.
The measures come into an election that must be held by the end of next year, and the giveaways were made possible because the economy had turned a corner, Hunt said.
Many of the measures had been trailed in advance, making market reaction muted, but shares in firms with high rates of investment spending rallied on news tax breaks there worth around £11 billion a year would be made permanent.
