Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement didn’t contain much in the way of major news regarding tax or pensions changes, which gives clarity when planning for the tax year-end and 2017 as a whole.<\/p>\n
There was welcome news that pension tax relief will remain untouched, and it would appear that the Government feels that now is still not the time for a major pensions shake up, although cold calling offering exotic investment opportunities to people cashing in their pension pots will be banned.<\/p>\n
To encourage younger savers, a new savings bonds was introduced,\u00a0with an interest rate expected to be set at about 2.2%. The bond will be open to those aged 16 and over, subject to a minimum investment limit of \u00a3100 and a maximum investment limit of \u00a33,000. Savers must keep their money invested for three years.<\/p>\n
Other headline items in the Statement include \u2013 the National Living Wage will rise from \u00a37.20 to \u00a37.50 in April; Lettings Agents will be banned from charging upfront fees to tenants, a commitment to increase home building to address the \u2018out of reach\u2019 housing problem and a continued freeze on fuel duty.<\/p>\n
This will be the last Autumn Statement. In future the Budget Day will switch from spring to autumn, with a toned down statement on the economy delivered each March. This will give welcome breathing space between the announcement of budget changes and their introduction.<\/p>\n
If you would like to speak to The Financial Planning Group about how any of today\u2019s news could affect you or your investment strategy,\u00a0<\/strong>please call Tim Norris or Alan Clifton on 0800 731 7614 and we would be delighted to arrange a meeting at our offices in the heart of Teddington.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement didn’t contain much in the way of major news regarding tax or pensions changes, which gives clarity when planning for the tax year-end and 2017 as a whole. There was welcome news that pension tax relief will remain untouched, and it would appear that the Government feels that now is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n