UK budget: extra £100m for Stormont and tax cuts for hundreds of thousands of workers

There will also be an extension to the freeze on fuel and alcohol duty – but the chancellor announced a future tax on vapes and increased duty on cigarettes putting the average price up to £16.

The spring budget has resulted in an additional £100m for the NI Executive to spend, £20m each in funding for Coleraine and Londonderry and tax cuts for hundreds of thousands of workers in Northern Ireland.

The £20 million of regeneration money each will be made available for Londonderry and Coleraine through the ‘Long-Term Plans for Towns’.

There will also be a £2m investment in Crusaders south stand as part of a community development project.

The government says it is putting £620 a year “back into the pocket of workers” in Northern Ireland thanks to changes in the Autumn Statement and a second National Insurance tax cut in April for over 800,000 workers in Northern Ireland.

Stormont will receive around £100 million in additional funding in 2024-25 through the Barnett formula. The government said: “This comes on top of its record £15 billion per year settlement at Spending Review 2021 and the significant, fair and generous £3.3 billion spending settlement confirmed last month.

"This allows the Northern Ireland Executive to stabilise public services, better manage public finances, increase opportunities for improved infrastructure and investment, pave the way for transformation of public services and enable the delivery of a pay award (2023-24) to public sector workers”.

However, NIO minister Steve Baker reiterated the government’s expectation that a write-off of Stormont’s debt will only happen if the Executive can raise £133m itself – saying Northern Ireland “needs to be put on a sustainable financial footing”.

Mr Baker said: “We do expect revenue raising. For far too long both public service reform and revenue raising have been neglected in Northern Ireland. We will obviously work through the details in collaboration with the Executive. But as a Government we are very clear that revenue raising is intertwined with what we’ve said about debt write-off.

“I want to be absolutely clear with the public and the Executive that Northern Ireland needs to be put on a sustainable financial footing and we need to have public service reform.”

Chris Heaton-Harris said: “Today’s Budget underlines the UK Government’s commitment to Northern Ireland and to the Union.

"I welcome the additional Barnett funding of £100 million for 2024-25, which is on top of the significant £3.3 billion spending settlement. This will provide a further boost to the Executive's spending power to invest in its own priorities.

"I am delighted with the Chancellor’s announcement of over £1 billion of new tax reliefs for creative industries across the UK, which is great news for Northern Ireland where creative Industries have already contributed over £1 billion GVA to the NI economy and this will further support Northern Ireland’s opportunities for growth particularly in the creative and digital industries.

"The UK Government is also committing £2m to boost global investment and trade, which builds on the successful Northern Ireland Investment Summit held in September 2023. This new funding will enhance Northern Ireland’s opportunities to showcase its innovation and technological strengths, taking advantage of the Windsor Framework."

The Treasury says the budget – combined with last year’s autumn statement – means a £620 average annual tax cut for over 800,000 workers in Northern Ireland. The government says the changes chart a path towards continued cuts to National Insurance when doing so can be achieved without increasing borrowing or compromising high-quality public services.

Mr Hunt also announced that the High Income Child Benefit Charge will be assessed on a household basis by April 2026, with a consultation to come on achieving this.

The government said: “To ensure working families benefit from increasing their earnings before this change is made, the threshold to start paying back Child Benefit will increase in April from £50,000 to £60,000 – a 20% increase which will take 170,000 families UK-wide out of paying the charge this year – while Child Benefit will no longer need to be repaid in full until earnings exceed £80,000.

"This represents a £1,260 boost on average for around half a million working families, rising to nearly £5,000 for some families when combined with tax cuts since Autumn Statement”.

There will be tax breaks and investments to “establish the UK as a world-leader in high-growth industries”

The UK’s creative industries will be backed by over £1 billion, including higher tax reliefs to lower the cost of producing visual effects in high-end TV and film.

A £360 million package will "support innovative R&D and manufacturing projects across the life sciences, automotive and aerospace sectors, with a further £45 million of funding to accelerate medical research into common diseases like cancer, dementia and epilepsy – while the Green Industries Growth Accelerator will be allocated an extra £120 million to build supply chains for offshore wind and carbon capture and storage”.

Despite the national insurance cut, income tax remains unchanged and the government’s overall tax take from the economy is expected to reach its highest level in 80 years by the end of the decade.