The 2016 United Kingdom budget was delivered by

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

on Wednesday, 16 March 2016. It was the second fully

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

budget delivered by Osborne, after the July 2015 budget. This was to be Osborne's last budget as Chancellor, as he was replaced by

Philip Hammond Philip Hammond, Baron Hammond of Runnymede (born 4 December 1955) is a British politician and life peer who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019, Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016, and Defence Secretary from 2011 to 2014. ...

on 13 July by way of

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabi ...

cabinet reshuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parli ...

Background

In the November 2015 Autumn Statement, the independent

Office for Budget Responsibility The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is a non-departmental public body funded by the UK Treasury, that the UK government established to provide independent economic forecasts and independent analysis of the public finances. It was formally ...

predicted that the UK economy would grow by 2.4% in 2016.

Budget announcements

* Osborne will introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks from 2018, raising around half a billion pounds which will be used to fund after-school activities such as sport and art. * The predicted GDP growth for 2016 was lowered to 2% from 2.4%. * The tax-free allowance will be raised to £11,500 and the 40p tax threshold will increase to £45,000. * There will be a new savings account, the

Lifetime ISA An individual savings account (ISA; ) is a class of retail investment arrangement available to residents of the United Kingdom. First introduced in 1999, the accounts have favourable tax status. Payments into the account are made from after-tax i ...

, for the under-40s, with the government putting in £1 for every £4 saved. * Funding was earmarked for

High Speed 3 Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), sometimes referred to unofficially as High Speed 3, is a proposed major rail programme designed to substantially enhance the economic potential of the North of England. The phrase was adopted in 2014 for a project ...

(an east-west rail line across the North of England),

Crossrail 2 Crossrail 2 is a proposed hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit route in South East England, running from nine stations in Surrey to three in Hertfordshire, providing a new North–South rail link across Greater London. It would connect the ...

(a north-south rail line across London), a road tunnel across the Pennines and upgrades to the

M62 motorway The M62 is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester. The road is part of th ...

. * £115 million was allocated to tackle

rough sleeping Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

. *Public sector employers will be required to contribute a higher proportion to their workers' pensions from 2019–2020. * Tobacco duty was increased by 2%. *Hand rolling tobacco duty was increased by 3%. *Fuel duty frozen at 57.95p per litre. * VAT on tampons was to be cut from 5% to 0%, as soon as EU obligations allowed. (The tax on women's sanitary products was abolished on 1 January 2021, when the transitional

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

period expired.) * The halving of tolls across both

Severn Bridge The Severn Bridge ( cy, Pont Hafren) is a motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn road crossing between England and Wale ...

s from 2018.

2016–17 taxes and spending

Taxes

Spending

Reactions

The Leader of the Opposition,

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

, described the budget as having "unfairness at its very core", singling out cuts to disability benefits and corporate tax for particular criticism. However, he expressed his approval for the introduction of the sugar levy in his House of Commons response. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,

Iain Duncan Smith Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born George Ian Duncan Smith; 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was ...

, resigned two days after the presentation of the budget, describing planned cuts within his department "as a compromise too far".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:United Kingdom Budget March 2016 events in the United Kingdom

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

2016 in British politics 2016 government budgets George Osborne