john lavender

🚨 NEW: John Healey is set to announce the following in his Budget later - The gas standing charge will be scrapped to save £27 a year on a typical bill - Green levies on energy bills will be scraped "for good" - NHS prescription charges will be frozen at £9.90 for another year - Poorer households on benefits will receive extra help with energy bills before January's sharp rises - The VAT cut on electricity bills, which was due to expire in April, will be extended (though it's not clear if this will be announced in the Budget or separately) - The Government will remove the link between gas and electricity prices, which currently inflates household bills, "in the long term" - Banks will face higher taxes, with the surcharge on their profits potentially rising from 3% to 8%, making it the Budget’s biggest revenue raiser - HMRC will be given powers to seize money from the bank accounts of people who fail to pay their tax - The freeze on rail fares will reportedly not be extended beyond April - Online retailers like Amazon, eBay and Temu will be made responsible for collecting unpaid VAT from sellers to fund a cut in business rates for high street shops - The thresholds for income tax will be frozen again so another half a million people may be dragged into the higher rate - January's planned increase in fuel duty will be cancelled - Pensioners relying solely on the state pension will see their tax-free allowance rise to £13,036, in line with the pension increase, so they don't pay income tax - Billions in long-term borrowing to invest in defence firms and raise the share of GDP spent on defence (without breaking fiscal rules, as the investments are expected to generate returns) - The upcoming "Your First Home" scheme will be made more generous to provide greater support for middle-income earners - The Budget will also assume the Rosebank oil field is approved, which will generate "significant tax revenues"