Autumn Statement 2023: Top announcements from chancellor at a glance
Here are the main announcements from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement to MPs:
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts an average inflation rate of 2.8% by the end of next year and 2% by 2025.
The OBR sees “overall” UK growth in 2023 of 0.6%. Economic growth of 0.7% is expected in 2024, doubling to 1.4% in 2025.
The independent forecaster expects debt will increase as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), the measure of everything produced in the economy.
Borrowing will be 91.6% of GDP next year then 92.7% in the 2024 to 2025 financial year.
The minimum wage – which the government sometimes refers to as the national living wage – will rise to £11.44 per hour from April.
That’s an increase of £1.02 from the current rate of £10.42.
This rate will now apply to Britons over 21, bringing the eligible age down from 23. For anyone under 21, the minimum wage is lower – but this is also increasing, as is the lowest legal pay for apprentices.
Those aged 18 to 20 will get at least £8.60 an hour from April, which is an increase of £1.11. For those 16 and 17, and apprentices, the minimum pay will be £6.40 – a rise of £1.12 on last year.
Benefits will increase by 6.7%, the September rate of inflation, as is customary, with the increase coming into effect in April.
The chancellor announced he will increase the local housing allowance rate to the 30th percentile of local market rents, which he says will give 1.6 million households an average of £800 support next year.
Mr Hunt reaffirmed government plans to remove benefits and step up monitoring of welfare recipients in an effort to bring more people into work.
Jobseekers will have benefits such as free medicines and legal aid removed if they’re found not to be looking for work under the Back to Work Plan which aims to bring 1.1 million people back into work.
The headline rates of national insurance for employees are being cut by 2 percentage points, impacting about 27 million workers.
Employees earning more than £12,570 a year currently pay 12% national insurance on pay up to £50,270. That will fall to 10%.
The cut will be in effect from 6 January.
For the self-employed, the chancellor said he is making reforms to the way national insurance is paid to save around 2 million people an average of £350 per year.
He said he is abolishing Class 2 national insurance – which he says saves £192 a year – for the self-employed.
Meanwhile, Class 4 national insurance will be cut from 9% to 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270.
State pension payments are to rise by 8.5% to £221.20 a week, worth almost an extra £900 a year. The triple lock will be “honoured in full”.
Work to establish a pension pot for life scheme will be begin, giving workers the option to nominate the fund their employer pays into, which can follow them as they move throughout their working life.
A further £500m will be invested over the next two years to fund further “innovation centres to help make us an AI powerhouse”, Mr Hunt said.
Moreover, a “new, simplified” tax relief for research and development will combine the existing R&D Expenditure Credit and SME schemes.
Through that merged scheme, Mr Hunt said he will also cut the rate at which loss-making companies are taxed from 25% to 19%.
The full expensing scheme – currently due to expire in 2026 – will be made permanent.
This allows firms to write off the entire cost of spending on new machinery and equipment, while also saving 25p from every pound spent on other types of investment.
The 75% discount on business rates – the tax paid on non-domestic properties – of up to £110,000 for firms in retail, hospitality and leisure will be extended for another year.
Mr Hunt claims this will save the average independent pub more than £12,800 next year.
All alcohol duty will be frozen until August. That means no increase in duty on beer, cider, wine or spirits.
Mr Hunt pledged to provide £7m to tackle antisemitism in schools and universities. To be repeated is a £3m uplift to Jewish organisation Community Security Trust.
In an attempt to cut the time it takes for planning applications to be granted for businesses, the chancellor said he will allow local authorities to recover the full costs of major business planning applications if they meet guaranteed faster timelines.
But if they fail, businesses will be refunded in full and have their planning application processed free of charge in what the chancellor described as a “prompt service or your money back” promise.
People living closest to new pylons and electricity substations will receive up to £10,000 off their bills over 10 years.
The government will meet its NATO commitment of spending 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), the measure of everything produced in the economy, on defence.
The chancellor also said he will also extend national insurance relief for employers of eligible veterans for another year. This will provide £10m to support the Veterans’ Places, Pathways and People programme, he added.
Freeports and investment zones will be given 10 years of “financial incentives”, rather than five as currently planned.
There will also be a further three investment zones, Mr Hunt said, in the West Midlands, East Midlands and in Greater Manchester, while a second investment zone will also be set up in Wales.
Despite the ongoing market meltdown on US trade tariffs, executives at major cryptocurrency firms Messari and Sygnum are bullish on institutional Bitcoin adoption later in 2025.
Speaking on a panel at Paris Blockchain Week on April 8, Messari CEO Eric Turner and Sygnum Bank co-founder Thomas Eichenberger said they expect a significant shift in the banking sector’s involvement with crypto in the second half of the year.
According to the executives, the global banking push into Bitcoin (BTC) services has great potential to happen in the second half of 2025 as regulators embrace crypto, including stablecoins and crypto services by banks.
“I think we’re probably looking at a muted Q2, but I’m really excited for Q3 and Q4,” Messari’s Turner said during the panel discussion moderated by Cointelegraph CEO Yana Prikhodchenko, forecasting “really interesting” things coming to the crypto market in 2025.
Crypto adoption is not just about Trump
While some investors focus on the pro-crypto stance of US President Donald Trump, Turner emphasized that broader regulatory momentum is what matters most.
“When you look at the potential of having market structure regulation in the US, stablecoin regulation, and just the fact that across the board, not just President Trump himself, but the SEC and all these regulatory industries are really embracing crypto,” Turner said.
Paris Blockchain Week’s panel with Cointelegraph CEO Yana Prikhodchenko, Bancor co-founder Eyal Hertzog, Sygnum co-founder Thomas Eichenberger, Messari CEO Eric Turner, AWS fintech leader Alex Matsuo and Near chief operating officer Chris Donovan. Source: Cointelegraph
Sygnum co-founder Thomas Eichenberger said international banks with US branches are also poised to enter the market once the legal landscape becomes clearer:
“I think it’s a matter of fact that US banks are preparing to be able to offer crypto custody and at least crypto spot trading services anytime soon.”
“I think by then I would agree with you, Eric,” he continued, projecting a continued phase of market uncertainty until the US establishes a clear regulatory framework.
Related: Ripple acquires crypto-friendly prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25B
Banks are no longer afraid of Bitcoin regulators
With the establishment of clear crypto rules for banks in the US, there will be a rush for crypto services by large international banks that are incorporated outside of the US but have a US-based presence, Eichenberger said.
“Some of them may have had their strategic plans in their cupboard to offer crypto-related services, but have been afraid that at some point they will be gone after by any of the US regulatory authorities,” he said, adding:
“Now I think there’s no one to be afraid of anymore in terms of regulatory authorities worldwide. So I think many of the large international banks will launch this year.”
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Global trade tensions triggered by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff measures may come to an end with a potential deal with China as investors remain concerned about escalation from both sides.
Trump’s April 2 announcement of reciprocal import tariffs sent shockwaves through global equity and crypto markets. The measures include a 10% baseline tariff on all imported goods, effective April 5, with higher levies — such as a 34% tariff on Chinese imports — set to begin on April 9.
However, the tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach an agreement with China, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.
“In the end, almost all the other tariff negotiations and rhetoric are all about getting China to agree a deal,” Pal wrote in an April 8 X post, adding:
“That is the big prize and both China and the US understand it and need it. Everything else is negotiation posturing. China needs a weaker $ and the US needs tariffs.”
Source: Raoul Pal
“Also, the US is trying to shut down China tariff arbitrage using other channels such as Mexico or Vietnam,” Pal said.
Related: Bitcoin price can hit $250K in 2025 if Fed shifts to QE: Arthur Hayes
China retaliates with new tariffs
Considering China’s latest retaliatory measures, a resolution remains unlikely in the short term.
In response to US tariffs, China imposed a 34% tariff on all US imports effective April 10, media outlet Xinhua News reported on April 4. China’s foreign ministry also vowed to “fight till the end” against Trump’s tariffs, which it called “bullying” by the world’s largest economy.
China overtakes the US in global trade. Source: Econovis
China overtook the US in 2012 to become the world’s largest trading nation by the total value of exports and imports, surpassing $4 trillion in goods trade that year, according to The Guardian.
Crypto markets watch trade outcome closely
As the trade dispute continues to evolve, analysts say a potential agreement between the two global superpowers could serve as a key catalyst for recovery in digital asset markets.
Crypto markets have a 70% chance to bottom by June 2025 before recovering, Nansen analysts predicted.
Related: Crypto market bottom likely by June despite tariff fears: Finance Redefined
Investor appetite for risk assets such as Bitcoin will depend on the global tariff responses from other countries, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen.
“We have reached somewhat of a local bottom in regard to tariffs and the impact on prices,” the analyst said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction live show on X, adding:
“Trump came out guns blazing, and we’ve mostly seen the worst from the US side, so we’ll see if other countries are willing to drop some of the tariffs because it’s very likely the US will do the same.”
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A Nigerian court has reportedly delayed the country’s tax evasion case against Binance until April 30 to give time for Nigeria’s tax authority to respond to a request from the crypto exchange.
Reuters reported on April 7 that a lawyer for Binance, Chukwuka Ikwuazom, asked a court the same day to invalidate an order allowing for court documents to be served to the company via email.
Binance doesn’t have an office in Nigeria and Ikwuazom claimed the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) didn’t get court permission to serve court documents to Binance outside the country.
“On the whole the order for the substituted service as granted by the court on February 11, 2025 on Binance who is … registered under the laws of Cayman Islands and resident in Cayman Islands is improper and should be set aside,” he said.
FIRS sued Binance in February, claiming the exchange owed $2 billion in back taxes and should be made to pay $79.5 billion for damages to the local economy as its its operations allegedly destabilized the country’s currency, the naira, which Binance denies.
It also reportedly alleged that Binance is liable to pay corporate income tax in Nigeria, as it has a “significant economic presence” there, with FIRS requesting a court order for the exchange to pay income taxes for 2022 and 2023, plus a 10% annual penalty on unpaid amounts along with a nearly a 27% interest rate on the unpaid taxes.
Nigeria’s legal history with Binance
In February 2024, Nigeria arrested and detained Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla on tax fraud and money laundering charges. The country dropped the tax charges against both in June and the remaining charge against Gambaryan in October.
Tigran Gambaryan (right) was seen in a September video struggling to walk into a courtroom in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. Source: X
Anjarwalla managed to slip his guards and escape Nigerian custody to Kenya in March last year and is apparently still at large.
Related: Binance exec shares details about release from Nigerian detention
Gambaryan, a US citizen, returned home in October after reports suggested his health had deteriorated during his detainment with reported cases of pneumonia, malaria and a herniated spinal disc that may need surgery.
Binance stopped its naira currency deposits and withdrawals in March 2024, effectively leaving the Nigerian market.
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