Budget: Hammond brings forward Personal Allowance rise

In his speech, Hammond said this means a basic rate taxpayer will pay £1,205 less tax in 2019-20 than in 2010-11.

Additionally, the Higher Rate Threshold will increase from £46,350 to £50,000 in April 2019, meaning there will be nearly 1 million fewer higher rate taxpayers than in 2015-16.

In total, Hammond said the changes will provide a tax cut for 32 million people in the UK.

Traceyann Kneen, head of technical at Nucleus, commented: “In perhaps the biggest headline from today’s Budget speech for the many, Hammond brought forward the Conservative pledge to raise the personal allowance and the higher rate tax threshold to £12,500 and £50,000 by 2020. This has been accelerated with its introduction from April 2019. It was confirmed this would take 1.7 million out of tax altogether and 1 million out of the higher rate tax threshold. Is this what was meant with austerity being over?”