Draft beer tax in pubs will remain frozen from August 1 this year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced.
Presenting his spring budget on Wednesday, Mr Hunt said it would “significantly increase the generosity of the aid project”, which he said he could not do in the EU.
Mr Hunt told MPs: “From 1 August, the duty on draft products in pubs will be up to 11p less than the duty in supermarkets, a difference we will keep under the new Brexit Pubs Guarantee. British ale may be warm, but the pint duty is frozen.”
Mr Hunt said the change would affect “every pub in Northern Ireland” due to the Windsor framework.
Earlier, the Ministry of Treasury confirmed that the energy price guarantee would be extended for another three months from April to June at the current level.
The move would leave bills for the average household at around £2,500 instead of rising to £3,000 as planned.
The chancellor also said the Office of Budget Responsibility predicted the UK would not enter a “technical recession” this year.
Mr Hunt told MPs: “Faced with huge challenges, today I am reporting on a UK economy that proves the doubters wrong.”
He added: “Today, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that due to changing international factors and the measures I will take, the UK will not enter a technical recession this year.
“They predict we will meet the prime minister’s priorities to halve inflation, reduce debt and boost economic growth. We are following the plan and the plan is working.”
Mr Hunt said the OBR forecast UK inflation to fall from 10.7 per cent in the last quarter of last year to 2.9 per cent by the end of 2023.
The chancellor also said the government would not rest until the UK was “the most dynamic business economy in Europe”.
Jeremy Hunt presents his budget in the House of Commons
(parliamentary television)
He told MPs: “We already have lower levels of corporate taxation than in France, Germany, Italy or Japan. But I want us to have the most pro-business, pro-entrepreneur tax system anywhere.
Even after the corporate tax hike in April this year, we will have the lowest basic rate in the G7 – lower than at any point in the last Labor government.
“Only 10 percent of companies will pay the full rate of 25 percent. But even at 19 percent, our corporate tax system did not encourage investment as effectively as countries with higher base rates.”
Mr Hunt also outlined the measures the government has already taken to encourage business investment, telling the House of Commons: “For larger businesses, we’ve had a super deduction introduced by the prime minister that ends this month.
“For smaller businesses, we’ve increased the annual investment allowance to £1m, meaning 99 per cent of all businesses can deduct the full value of all their investments from their taxable income in any given year.”
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