by Rosie McLean 
The spring budget has had a lukewarm reception, with many saying more could have been done to help the housing market although more money in people’s pockets increases affordability. So, what does it all mean for you?
More money to spend
In the worst-kept secrets of the Spring Budget, one of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s key announcements was a further cut in National Insurance rates from 10% to 8% from April following a previous cut from 12% to 10% in November’s Autumn Statement.
The additional 2p cut is worth around £450 a year for someone on a £35,000 full-time salary.
The cut came alongside a promise from Hunt to cut National Insurance further in the future where possible, as well as alongside other bank-boosting measures for consumers, such as a freezing of fuel and alcohol duty.
Child benefit was also overhauled, with the threshold for the repayment of child benefit rising from £50,000 to £60,000 taking 170,000 families out of having to pay the benefit back, and the threshold for full repayment of the benefit rising from £60,000 to £80,000 from April.
Hunt said the change would mean an average saving next year of around £1,300 for nearly half a million families with children.
For buyers looking for a mortgage and struggling with affordability checks, having more money in their pockets will help while renters will also be grateful for having more to spend.
Greater economic confidence
Hunt’s announcements sat alongside greater confidence in economic forecasts for the UK. Hunt said the economy is forecast to grow by 0.8% this year and 1.9% next, 0.5% higher than the OBR had forecast in the autumn.
Alongside this, he said that government debt and borrowing were falling.
However, one of the biggest influencers on consumer confidence for buyers, sellers, renters and landlords alike will be his predictions about inflation.
Here, Hunt claimed that inflation, which has pushed up interest rates and therefore mortgage rates to record highs in the last year or two, should fall to below 2% in a “few months” from its 4% figure in January.
He said that is nearly a year earlier than forecast in the autumn statement and marked a huge change to 2022’s 11.1% peak.
As inflation comes under control so hope is raised that interest rates and mortgage rates will be reduced, opening up the floodgates to pent-up buyer and seller demand within the housing market.
Property tax cuts
But while the sentiments around affordability were welcomed there were no specific measures to help first-time buyers, despite the previous talk of 99% mortgages.
The reduction in capital gains tax threshold, from 28% to 24%, could encourage more landlords to invest by making buy-to-let investment more attractive, as well as result in more properties coming to market and making more properties available generally.
But a clampdown on short lets and multiple dwellings relief spells bad news for some landlords. The tax concessions for landlords of furnished holiday lets ends from April 2025.
