<?xml encoding=”utf-8″ ??>
Hunt announces 12 new Investment Zones.
They will be spread across the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, the North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Midlands, Teesside and Liverpool.
There will also be at least one in each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Corporation tax to increase to 25%
Corporation tax for businesses is to increase from 19% to 25%, as planned.
Firms which make a profit of more than £250,000 will pay 25% tax on their profits from April.
Hunt says only 10% of companies will pay the full 25% rate.
For smaller businesses we have increased the Annual Investment Allowance to £1m, meaning 99% of all businesses can deduct the full value of all their investment from that year’s taxable profits, Hunt says.
He says he’s also introducing “fulll expensing”, which for the next three years, with an intention to make it permanent as soon as we can responsibly do so.
He says it means that every single pound a company invests in IT equipment, plant or machinery can be deducted in full and immediately from taxable profits.
Small or medium-sized businesses will be able to claim a credit worth £27 for every £100 they spend if they spends 40% or more of their total expenditure on Research and Development, says the chancellor,
Fuel duty will be frozen and a 5p reduction will be maintained for a further year.
The chancellor has now turned to measures to reduce the carbon emission that contribute to climate change.
“I am allocating up to £20bn of support for the early development of carbon, capture, usage and storage, starting with projects from our East Coast to Merseyside to North Wales.
He says this will support up to 50,000 jobs, attract private sector investment and help capture 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.
He also says he will extend the Climate Change Agreement scheme for two years to allow eligible businesses £60m of tax relief on energy efficiency measures.
Hunt says many MPs have campaigned for better local transport infrastructure, which he’s decided to act on.
He announces a second round of the city region sustainable transport settlements, allocating £8.8bn over next five-year funding period.
On top of this, to many cheers in the chamber, he says he’ll increase funding to help local communities tackle the problem of potholes. The cause will get a further £200m from next year, Hunt says.
Hunt says the government will invest £200m in local regeneration projects around England.
He also lays out a further £161m for mayoral combined authorities and Greater London, while £400m will be available for new “levelling up partnerships” in areas like Redcar, Cleveland and Blackburn.