David Mills MS

Welsh government Finance Minister Elin Jones responds to the budget, calling it a “real-terms cut dressed up as a windfall” 👇

🚨 SUMMARY: John Healey's first Budget SUPPORT FOR BILLS: - Eligible households in council tax bands A–D will receive a £100 cash payment from January to help with energy bills - The cut to VAT on electricity bills will be extended until July 2027 - Gas standing charges will be abolished by the end of 2027 or soon after, with costs shifted to gas unit rates - Targeted energy debt relief will be introduced to help households struggling with energy arrears - Local authorities in England will receive an extra £100m to support households on benefits facing severe energy pressures - Energy-intensive manufacturers will receive a 20–25% electricity discount from April 2027 - The 5p fuel duty cut will be extended until 1 July 2027 - The 3.7p-per-litre red diesel duty cut will be extended until 1 July 2027 - The HGV vehicle excise duty holiday will be extended until 1 July 2027 - £100m will be invested over two years to reduce the cost of local, lower-powered public EV chargers TAX: - Tax on savings income will rise by a further 2% from April - Tax on property income will rise by a further 2% from April - The tax on bank profits will rise from 3% to 6% from January 2027 to March 2028 - Machine Games Duty will rise from 20% to 25% on machines with stakes over £1 from April - Business rates relief will be removed for vape shops and adult gaming centres from April - Online marketplaces will have to collect VAT on sales by UK businesses making over £90,000 from October 2027 - Certain overseas businesses will have to account for UK VAT on services sold to UK businesses under tightened rules - Certain UK property income and gains earned by foreign sovereign investors will become subject to UK tax following a consultation - From April 2028, tax rules will change to stop shareholders from using certain methods to pay less tax on money taken out of their companies - HMRC will gain new powers to seize lower-value unpaid tax directly from the bank accounts of people who can afford to pay but fail to do so - The business rates threshold for retail, hospitality and leisure in England will rise from £12,000 to £18,000 - meaning 70,000 businesses will pay no business rates - Alcohol duty will increase in line with inflation from February 2027, potentially increasing prices for beer, wine and spirits - Small breweries and cider makers will receive £10 million a year in extra tax relief to help reduce their costs - Rachel Reeves' plans to cut the annual cash ISA allowance have been scrapped - it will remain at £20,000 rather than falling to £12,000 - From April 2027, the amount of profit eligible for tax relief when selling a business will be reduced from £1 million to £500,000 - From April 2027, eligible business founders selling their businesses will pay just 10% Capital Gains Tax on up to £10 million in profits over their lifetime WAGES, INCOME AND COST OF LIVING: - Import tariffs will be temporarily removed on more than 100 food and drink products from 26 November 2026 until December 2028 - Tariffs on heating kerosene will be suspended until December 2028 - Tariffs on specified fertilisers will be suspended until December 2027 - The tax-free allowance for pensioners relying solely on the state pension will be increased to match the rise in the pension to £13,097 - The minimum wage will rise to £13.21 for over 21s, £11.27 for 18 to 20 year olds and £8.31 for under 18s and apprentices - all rises of 3.9% - Eligible self-employed fathers, partners and adopters will gain access to parental pay from April 2029 - The tax-free mileage allowance for employees using their own cars for work will be made permanent: 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 35p (from 25p) per mile above that - Carers earning over £204 a week after tax will no longer automatically lose their entire Carer’s Allowance; a tapered reduction will be introduced from 2029 instead (lose £1 for every extra £1 earned) HOUSING: - £4.7bn will fund the new Your First Home scheme to help around 70,000 households buy a home, with deposits as low as 2.5% and interest-free Government loans for the first five years, starting April 2027 - A new ISA for first-time buyers will launch in April 2029. You can save up to £4,000 a year, and for every £100 you save, the Government will add £25, up to £1,000 a year, to help you buy your first home costing up to £450,000 - From tomorrow, people with an existing Lifetime ISA will face a lower penalty when using their savings to buy a home costing over £450,000. The penalty will drop from 25% to 20% - An extra £432m will be provided over 2027–28 and 2028–29 to help rough sleepers get off the streets - An extra £1bn will go towards social and affordable housing in England, taking funding for the 10-year programme to more than £40bn DEFENCE: - A new target date of spending 3% of GDP on defence in 2030 - The £298 billion Defence Investment will be "fully funded" through "capital reprioritisation across Whitehall" - £10bn in economic and military support for Ukraine DEVOLUTION AND LOCAL INVESTMENT: - Mayors in England will begin retaining 20% of business rates from April 2027 with the aim of allowing all business rates to be retained locally by 2030 - Mayors will receive a share of income tax receipts from April 2028 - The Government will work with mayors to develop a £1.5bn borrowing facility, expected to be available from 2028, to help fund larger local projects OTHER: - A new £15m fund will tackle misogyny in schools, workplaces and communities

This is outrageous. Reform MS @DavidMillsMS has written to the Director of Education over a teacher allegedly describing Reform UK as "bad" people who are "mean" to illegal migrants. All teachers at Brecon High School should be politically impartial, not left-wing activists.

Today we remember Aberfan.

If we don’t wake up, the carnage in France is our future. We need to return to law, order, and borders.

Reform is the party of alarm clock Britain.

This is outrageous. Reform MS @DavidMillsMS has written to the Director of Education over a teacher allegedly describing Reform UK as "bad" people who are "mean" to illegal migrants. All teachers at Brecon High School should be politically impartial, not left-wing activists.

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