Budget: What the Autumn statement means for Derry

The UK Chancellor has just announced a record £40 billion in tax rises, these are the key points for the people living in County Derry.

Stormont budget

Much of Rachel Reeves’ announcements on health, education and transport don’t apply in Northern Ireland due to devolution. 

Instead, the Northern Ireland Executive gets a flat sum, calculated using the Barnett formula.

It was announced that £1.5 billion will be allocated for the coming 2025-26 period in Northern Ireland.

It takes the Executive’s 2025-26 budget to £18.2bn. 

£1.2bn of the announced figure is for the day-to-day running of Stormont’s departments, i.e. things like wages and funding programmes.

Another £270m will be allocated for capital projects.

City deals

It was confirmed that funding for city and growth deals in Causeway Coast and Glens will proceed, along with the news Mid South West would receive funding from London too.

It’ll amount to £162m over 15 years for both regions, with Stormont contributing the rest (£324m) in total.

Extra funding

The PSNI have been provided £38m for the Additional Security Fund, while there has been £8m provided for the Executive’s programme on paramilitarism and organised crime and An extra £10m for the NIO budget, increasing from £52m to £62.3m (this includes funding for the inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane).

Meanwhile there has been £730,000 allocated “to support schools as they work towards integrated status”.

The Chancellor says she will keep the freeze on fuel duty for another year, this will retain the 5p cut and freeze fuel duty again would cost more than £3 billion next year.

The Chancellor said: “At a time when the fiscal position is so difficult, I have to be frank with the House that this is a substantial commitment to make.

“I have concluded that in these difficult circumstances while the cost of living remains high and with a backdrop of global uncertainty increasing fuel duty next year would be the wrong choice for working people.

“It would mean fuel duty rising by 7p per litre. So, I have today decided to freeze fuel duty next year and I will maintain the existing 5p cut for another year, too. There will be no higher taxes at the petrol pumps next year.”

Minimum wage and Employers’ National Insurance 

The UK’s national minimum wage for workers aged 21+ is set to increase by 6.7% from April 2025, rising from £11.44 an hour to £12.21 an hour. 

The rate for those aged 18-20 will rise by 16.3%, taking it from £8.60 to £10 an hour.

Ms Reeves said: "I know that for working people up and down our country, family finances are stretched and pay checks don’t go as far as they used to."

Employers National Insurance will increase by 1.2 percentage points to 15% from April 2025. The threshold employers start paying will be lowered from £9,100 to £5,000. The Chancellor said this will raise around £25bn per year.

She said: "We are asking business to contribute more, and I know that there will be impacts of this measure felt beyond businesses, too as the OBR have set out today. But in the circumstances that I have inherited, it is the right choice to make.

“Successful businesses depend on successful schools. Healthy businesses depend on a healthy NHS. And a strong economy depends on strong public finances. If the party opposite chooses to oppose this choice, then they are choosing more austerity, more chaos and more instability. That is the choice our country faces too.”

Alcohol, tobacco and vapes

Duty on draught alcohol has been cut by 1.7% but alcohol duty rates on non-draught products will increase in line with the retail price index (RPI) from February next year. 

Tobacco duty is set to increase in line with the RPI measure of inflation, plus 2%. Duty on hand-rolled tobacco will increase by 10%.

The government will introduce a vaping duty for the first time at £2.20 per 10ml of liquid, from Oct 1 2026.

Pensions

The Chancellor once again stated that the UK Government are committed to the pension triple lock.

She said: “This commitment means that while working-age benefits will be uprated in line with CPI at 1.7%, the basic and new state pension will be uprated by 4.1% in 2025-26.

“This means that over 12 million pensioners will gain up to £470 next year.

“The pension credit standard minimum guarantee will also rise by 4.1% from around £11,400 per year to around £11,850 for a single pensioner.”

Carer's Allowance changes

The Chancellor said: “Carer’s allowance currently provides up to £81.90 per week to those with additional caring responsibilities.

“Today, I can confirm that we are increasing the weekly earnings limit to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage per week, the largest increase since Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.

“That means a carer can now earn over £10,000 a year while receiving Carer’s Allowance, allowing them to increase their hours where they want to and keep more of their money.”