Autumn Statement Round Up

The Chancellor Philip Hammond announced his very first Autumn Statement on 23 November 2016. Growth has been lower post Brexit and it seems the Chancellor could be trying to combat this with investment in infrastructure and transport. At last year’s Spending Review, George Osborne revealed £16bn in spending cuts for government departments. These spending limits are to be maintained, however the Chancellor is incentivising departments to make efficiency savings by allowing them to keep up to £1bn (across all of government) of those savings for reinvestment in ‘priority areas’.

Third Sector and NCVO have done some analysis and you can read their synopses here and here. But the mood suggests that, whilst there are lots of areas for the sector to think about, the VCSE was not at the forefront of this Autumn Statement. ACEVO (The Charity Leaders Network) have described the statement as a sticking plaster.

Areas of note include:

An additional £100m for military charities from LIBOR banking fines
Changes to investment limits on social investment tax relief
An invitation for women’s charities to apply for funds from the next round of tampon tax funding. Read response from the Fawcett Society here.
Personal allowance rises to £11,500 next April so make sure that people know when they #GiftAid
Insurance Premium Tax to go up to 12% from next year, this is a cost for #charities particularly events based fundraising.
A rise in the living wage
Increased investment in Local Growth Funds and Local Enterprise Partnerships