Big budget special

The 1-minute read to get the money news you need with expert adviser commentary.

Generation buy?

In his budget yesterday the chancellor announced key measures to help first-time buyers. The stamp duty holiday has been extended by 3 months, keeping the threshold for paying the property tax at £500,000 until the end of June and then reducing it to £250,000 until September. He also confirmed a guarantee for mortgage lenders to encourage them to offer 95% mortgages again, from April until the end of 2022.

Taxing times

Pandemic spending is expensive stuff - and the chancellor’s plans are set to increase taxes to their highest levels since the 1960s. It’s not happening just yet though. From 2023, large companies will pay more corporation tax on their profits. Income tax thresholds will be frozen, meaning that an estimated 1.3 million people will start paying the tax by 2026.

Public approves

2 early opinion polls suggest the majority of people seem to approve of yesterday’s budget. In a poll by Opinium a few hours after the speech, 52% approved and 12% disapproved. And in one by YouGov, 46% of people liked it and 11% didn’t.

Amazon Fresh

In non-budget news, Amazon’s first till-free supermarket outside the US has opened today in London. Shoppers will be able to pick up their groceries then skip the checkout queue and just walk straight out. Amazon’s tech will work out what they’ve bought and charge them automatically.