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He has revealed tax rises and spending cuts worth billions of pounds aimed at mending the nation's finances after the confidence crash of the last mini-Budget.
The main measures are:
Tax and employment
- Minimum wage for people aged over 23 to increase from £9.50 to £10.42 an hour from next April;
- State pension payments and means-tested and disability benefits to increase by 10.1, per cent in line with inflation;
- Top income tax rate of 45 per cent paid on earnings over £125,140, instead of £150,000 (except Scotland);
- Income tax personal allowance and higher rate thresholds frozen for further two years, until April 2028;
- Main National Insurance and inheritance tax thresholds also frozen for further two years, until April 2028;
- Tax-free allowances for dividend and capital gains tax also due to be cut next year and in 2024;
Local councils in England will be able to increase council tax up to five per cent a year without a local vote, (currently three per cent);
- Electric cars, vans and motorcycles to pay road taxes from April 2025
Business
- Support worth £13.6bn over next five years to help firms with business rates, including a mixture of freezes and reliefs;
- Import taxes removed on more than 100 goods, including some food products, for two years to reduce costs
- Plans for a possible online sales tax scrapped;
- Review into how post-Brexit regulation can support emerging technologies.
Energy
- Household energy price cap extended for one year beyond April but made less generous, with typical bills capped at £3,000 a year instead of £2,500;
- Households on means-tested benefits will receive £900 support payments next year;
- £300 payments to pensioner households, and £150 for individuals on disability benefit;
- Windfall tax on profits of oil and gas firms increased from 25 per cent to 35 per cent and extended until March 2028;
- New 45 per cent tax on companies that generate electricity, to apply from January.
Economy and predictions
Advertisement  - The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) judges UK to be in recession, meaning the economy has slowed for two quarters in a row;
- It predicts growth for this year overall of 4.2 per cent, but size of the economy will shrink by 1.4 per cent in 2023;
- Growth of 1.3 per cent, 2.6 per cent, and 2.7 per cent is predicted for 2024, 2025 and 2026 respectively;
- UK's inflation rate predicted to be 9.1 per cent this year and 7.4 per cent next year;
- Unemployment expected to rise from 3.6 per cent to 4.9 per cent in 2024;
- Government will give itself five years to hit debt and spending targets, two years longer than current plans.
Government spending
- Scheduled public spending will be maintained until 2025, but then grow more slowly than previously expected;
- In England, NHS budget will increase by £3.3bn a year for the next two years, and spending on schools by £2.3bn;
- Larger payments to devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland;
- Defence spending to be maintained at two per cent of national income;
- Overseas aid spending kept at 0.5 per cent for the next five years.
Social measures
- Lifetime cap on social care costs in England due in October 2023 delayed by two years;
- Social housing rent increases in England capped at seven per cent from next April.
Autumn Statement 2022
For more information and expert analysis on issues relating to freelancers, contractors and small busiesses in the Autumn Statement see Shout99's Political News section.
Further IR35 information
For more information about all aspects of IR35, including the controversial IR35 reforms see Shout99's News on IR35 section.
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The Editor
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