✨ Cherry Hudson ✨

Tweeting about anything I find interesting!

[Steven Swinford @Steven_Swinford]

THE BUDGET 2025

Here's everything we know about today's Budget, from the dozen plus tax rises to the cost-of-living giveaways and increase in spending on welfare:

TAX

* Freezing income tax thresholds for two more years until 2030, raising £8bn to £10bn.

The biggest tax rise in the Budget. Will lead to accusations that Labour has broken manifesto pledge. Will take no of higher rate taxpayers to 10million by 2030 and everyone in receipt of full state pension will pay income tax from 2028

* Tax raid on pensions contributions

Pension contributions under salary sacrifice schemes will be hit with national insurance for both employers and employees. There will be a £2,000 but move could raise as much as £4bn. Concerns it will discourage people from doing right thing and saving for retirement

* Gambling taxes

Reeves is expected to raise around £1billion by increasing taxes on online gambling, physical slot machines and other gambling duties. Horseracing will be exempted. Treasury had hoped to raise £3bn but behavioural impact means it will raise less

* High value property tax

All properties worth £2m plus will be hit with a new charge of around £4,500. Roughly 100,000 properties targeted. Top three bands of council tax will be revalued to work out who to hit with new charge. OBR expected to raise concerns about behavioural impact. Raises around £450m but crucially establishes basis of a new tax for future

* Pay per mile on electric cars

Electric vehicle drivers face new 3p per mile charge on top of other road taxes to make up for falling fuel duty revenues, with average drivers paying £250 a year. Could raise £2bn but highly uncertain. Grants being extended for electric cars but will it hit the transition from petrol and diesel to electric?

* Cash Isas

Reeves will cut the cash-free Isa allowance from £20,000 to £12,000 in a bid to encourage people to invest in stocks and shares. Lenders have raised concerns this could push up mortgage rates

* The milkshake tax

Pre-packaged milkshakes and lattes will be hit by sugar tax. Threshold for levy will also be cut from 5g/100ml to 4.5g/100ml, hitting dozens more popular brands including Pepsi, Irn Bru and Fanta

* The tourism tax

A £2 a night levy on overnight stays in hotels and other holiday rentals, including Airbnbs. Brings Britain into line with other countries but concerns it will deter tourism. Money will go to Mayors or other strategic authorities

* Cycle to work tax

Buyers of expensive manual and electric bicycles through salary sacrifice schemes will have benefits cut sharply. Concerns it has become a tax break for high earners who take '£4,000 e-bikes for weekend rides in the Surrey Hills'

* Business rates

Reeves will make a temporary discount for small retail and hospitality premises permanent but fund the move with a tax raid on properties with a rateable value of £500,000. It will hit big warehouse businesses ie Amazon but also leading supermarkets, which had hoped to secure an exemption

* Shein/ Temu crackdown

Reeves will scrap a widely criticised tax loophole that benefits Chinese ecommerce giants, but not until 2029. Retailers wanted it to come sooner

* Taxi tax

Reeves will impose VAT on Uber, Bolt and other private hire taxi firms in a move that they say could push up fares by 15%. They pay a reduced rate of VAT under a scheme originally set up for travel agents and tour operators

COST OF LIVING

* Energy bills

Could be the 'rabbit' of the Budget, although Reeves doesn't like rabbits (metaphorically speaking). Reeves will cut energy bills by removing green levies. No 10 had wanted a £170 cut, Treasury thought £80 was more realistic. Not clear where they have landed

* National living wage

A 4 per cent rise in the national living wage to £12.71. A bigger rise of 8.5% for 18 to 20-year-olds taking their pay to £10.85. Reeves says move will reward work, but left-leaning think tanks are concerned it will price young people out of work

* Fuel duty

Reeves is expected to extend the fuel duty freeze for yet another year, which has not become a near-permanent fixture of the tax system. Will cost around £3bn. But does it make sense at a time when govt is imposing new levy on electric cars?

* Rail fare freeze

In a surprise move, Reeves has frozen rail fares for the first time in 30 years instead of raising them in line with inflation by 4.8%

* The two-child cap on welfare

The two-child benefit cap will be scrapped outright. Reeves spent months resisting the move, arguing it was too expensive, only to have her hand forced by strength of feeling on backbenches. Will cost £3bn

* Uprating benefits

Benefits will rise in line with inflation. Move was fully expected but comes at a significant cost - £6billion

* The welfare/ winter fuel u-turns

Reeves will have to foot the cost of her seismic u-turns on winter fuel payments and plans to overhaul the welfare system, which came in at more than £6bn

PUBLIC SPENDING

* NHS investment

Reeves will announce more funding for the NHS as Labour seeks to cut waiting lists. How much is unclear yet, but it is expected to be one of the headline measures in the Budget

* No return to austerity

Reeves has insisted that there will be no return to austerity and public spending will be protected. However there will be a cut in the public spending profile at the end of this Parliament, for 2029/30, which is likely to be viewed with scepticism by the markets given Reeves's reluctance to pare back public spending. It is a mañana promise of spending today and unspecified cuts tomorrow

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

O2 price rise feels like a mockery of Ofcom’s consumer protection!

O2 has announced that from April 2026, mobile customers will see their monthly bills rise by MORE THAN IT TOLD THEM, £30 a year – up 40% from the £21.60 annual increase previously written into their contracts. Full help to beat it here, you need act quick... https://t.co/5D74balVcl

Here is my press statement on this debacle...
----------------
This move feels to me a bit like it makes a mockery of @Ofcom's new 'pounds and pence' consumer protection regime, which came in at the start of this year. It was the regulator's solution to hideous above-inflation, mid-contract price hikes was that on sign-up firms should tell you in advance, in pounds and pence, the price hikes you'll face during the contract period.

Sky has side-stepped this from the start by saying it wouldn't tell customers of the rises before they sign up, but instead when it does annual price hikes it will allow them to leave penalty free.

Now O2 is also dancing away, increasing contracts by more than it said it would when people signed up. And while that means all its impacted mobile customers can leave penalty-free – and many should – we know few will. Most will likely just have to suck up a rise that was more than they were told when they signed up.

The worry is now O2 has opened the door to this behaviour other mobile firms will feel less worried about following suit. It's a great regret that when Ofcom consulted on these changes it didn't listen to the proposal I and others made to simply ban above-inflation, mid-contract price rises (or any mid-contract rises).

And it's worth noting the rises O2 had told customers of in advance were already usually far above inflation, but now will typically be at least 7% and up to 30%. And all this adds more inflationary pressure to the economy in its own right.

[Sidmouth Town AFC @SidmouthTownAFC]

Eyes turn to Wednesday night’s action!

League one side Plymouth Argyle visit Manstone Lane 👊

🏆 @devon_fa St Luke’s Challenge Cup
🗓️ Wednesday 24th September
🆚 @Argyle
🏟️ Manstone Lane
🕒 19:30 KO
🎟️ Pay On The Gate: £7/£4

@swsportsnews

#UTV💚 #Vikings

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

I love it when I can pick fresh tomatoes from my garden for a Sunday morning breakfast! 🍅

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@eon_next I’m not talking about the standing charge. I’m referring to the electricity used. It’s costing to run the meter

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@eon_next Hi. Could you explain why you state that smart meters are free to use, whilst I have been monitoring an energy account on an empty property, with no electrical appliances, except for the smart meter, and it’s using approx 2p per day (£7 per year annual cost)? Thanks

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@SW_Help Hi I need to get back to Honiton station. Where would I find the bus at Exeter Central? Also what times are the buses please? The app doesn’t give me the information. Thanks

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@LidlGB purchased a bag of your baby potatoes yesterday and most of them in the bag are old and shrivelled 🥔 ☹️

[Stonehenge U.K @ST0NEHENGE]

Just stop oil protestors damage Stonehenge 😭

[Morden Station @MordenStation]

Friday 8th March 2024 Thought Of The Day From Morden Underground Station #InternationalWomensDay

[Cancer Research UK @CR_UK]

Today is #WorldCancerDay, so we’re sending love and strength to everyone affected by cancer ❤️

You’re not alone. If you need support, why not join our online Cancer Chat, a safe place where you can connect with others 👉 https://t.co/Jq9Df1nPmi

[Alan Smith @AlanJLSmith]

You must know the data if you're an investor or advise clients on their investments.

Here are 96 years of data distilled down to 10 charts.

Bookmark this thread and use it as your investing 'North Star' ⭐️👇🧵

"In God we trust. All others must bring data." W.E. Demming

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

Please, @Mark_Spencer, say YES to happy farmers, healthy #bees, safe soils, clean waters. And NO to bee-killing https://t.co/jsB3eTcVn9 email to you today explains why.Please listen @WildlifeTrusts ️#NoMoreNeonics #ActionForInsects

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@StagecoachSW the 8.41 left at 9.14am. How on earth do you expect people to rely on this service, especially if working.

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@StagecoachSW hi could you let me know what time the 8.41 green park and ride bus from Sowton to Exeter High Street is expected please?

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

Suspected tornado splits ancient oak tree https://t.co/vyO7e9d42X

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@Matthew_Who @JaneHillNews and kept a straight face! 😆

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@stuarthughes747 Surely they can’t be Rishi’s shoes… and what is going on with those ties? Have they all just scrambled through a dressing up box to take this photo? 😆 👞👞

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

@MartinSLewis I did this with a Ninja air fryer and got 10% discount. This was last week, online purchase and it was delivered within 24 hours 🥷

[✨ Cherry Hudson ✨ @cherry_hudson]

All ready for National odd sock day which is part of anti bullying week! 🧦🧦