The Autumn Budget 2024: What Could It Mean for Your Finances?
The Autumn Budget 2024: What Could It Mean for Your Finances?
On October 30th, 2024, the UK’s Labour Government announced their plans to tackle the economic situation of the country through The Budget – the first Labour Budget after 14 years of Conservative rule. This outlines their principles and goals for various aspects of the country and its people, from key welfare institutions like the NHS to their plans for reducing debt and sourcing funding.
With the changes comes obvious concerns around how they might impact personal finances. Ahead, the experts at Hansford Bell will outline key points from the budget around pensions, inheritance, capital gains, and other relevant areas to ensure you’re up to speed on what the coming changes may hold.
Get in touch today and talk to a friendly consultant to see how the changes might affect your investments.
What is The Budget?
The House of Commons Library defines The Budget as:
“A statement made by the Chancellor to MPs in the House of Commons, presenting the government’s plans for the economy, including changes to taxation and spending.”
In essence, it breaks down the Government’s plans on how they’ll manage the country’s money over the next five years. The Budget therefore contains a lot of vital information for citizens in the UK, especially those looking to safeguard their assets and ensure their financial situation is as they anticipate.
Key points from The Budget 2024
To help you understand how exactly The Budget might impact your finances, we’ve taken several key insights from the speech and condensed them into bitesize information.
Is Tax Rising?
The Budget started with Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, proposing an intimidating figure: £40bn of tax increases to cover the country’s debt and spending needs.
Throughout The Budget, the Chancellor gave a breakdown of where these taxes would come from.
She announced that income tax and National Insurance paid by workers will be frozen at the current levels, meaning there will not be a change to tax on a payslip. These freezes were extended to other areas such as tax on certain small businesses and on fuel duty.
Meanwhile, the freeze on income tax thresholds that was enacted by the previous government will continue until its proposed finish in 2028, wherein it will be unfrozen – allowing the thresholds at which tax must be paid to change according to inflation.
So where is the money coming from? This £40bn number is largely derived from an increase in the National Insurance contributions that employers make on behalf of their employees. From April 2025, this value will rise by 1.2% to 15%, with an additional reduction in the secondary threshold to £5000. Combined, these measures are expected to raise £25bn a year.
Pensions
The Triple Lock on the state pension is expected to continue, with Working Age Benefits in-line with CPI. Overall, spending on the state pension is expected to rise by 4.1%, leading to an increase of £470 for over 12 million pensioners in the UK.
The more pressing change regarding pensions is their inclusion from April 2027 onwards as an asset as part of inheritance, meaning they will no longer be usable as a way of preserving wealth before death.
You can find out more detailed information about the changes to pensions and inheritance on contact us to get a consultation that’s relevant to your specific situation and needs.
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Inheritance
6% of people in the country are expected to pay inheritance tax this year. With such a large number of people impacted by this financial burden, the government have frozen thresholds for a further 2 years beyond the established duration, now ending in 2030. These thresholds include:
- £325k tax-free baseline
- £500k threshold for inheritance passed to direct descendants
- £1m threshold when passed to a surviving spouse or partner
They also plan to bring inherited pensions into inheritance tax from April 2027, closing off one avenue of wealth preservation.
Meanwhile, inheritance for agricultural assets and lands will have less generous exemptions from April 2026, with an effective rate of 20% on agricultural inheritance over £1m.
Explore the estate and tax planning services from Hansford Bell >
Capital Gains Tax
Capital Gains Tax is changing under the new budget. The lower rate will increase from 10% to 18%, while the higher rate will increase from 20% to 24%. Capital Gains Tax on properties will be maintained at these values.
Despite the changes, the Chancellor claims these increases still leave us as having the “lowest rate of any European G7 economy”. However, such significant increases could still have an impact on your financial situation, and are a point for consideration when thinking about your current and future investment plans
Housing
The main change for housing is that stamp duty land tax on second homes will rise from 2% to 5%, effective from October 31st, 2024. This is in an attempt to raise funding while still supporting those buying their first home or moving home.
The rates on profits from selling additional properties are currently expected to remain unchanged.

The Principles Behind the New Budget
Stability and Investment
The 2024 Budget is underpinned by two primary rules: Stability and Investment.
Stability Rule: This aims to bring the budget into balance so that borrowing isn’t used to fund day-to-day spending. Projections indicate a deficit in this regard of 25bn in 2025-26, but expect it to rise to a surplus of 10bn by 2029-30 – meeting the purpose of the Stability Rule 2 years ahead of schedule.
Investment Rule: This aims to target the Net Financial Debt of the country, focusing on the assets and benefits the government will gain as opposed to just mitigating the liabilities and costs. This rule outlines the objective of investing in infrastructure to perpetuate the country’s economy.
The Seven Core Goals
Alongside the rules for Stability and Investment, the Chancellor outlined seven other core goals that underpinned The Budget. These include:
- Restoring economic stability.
- Increasing investments and build new infrastructure with £70bn in funding.
- Working with devolved governments and mayors for local growth.
- Establishing Skills England – making work pay and tackling economic inactivity.
- Introducing a modern industrial strategy for small and medium businesses.
- Allocating record funding for Research and Development.
- Creating jobs through sustainability and renewables investments and R&D.
With these goals driving The Budget and the government’s plans for the future, it is clear to see where they are putting the country’s focus and money. What might be less clear is the impact these measures could make on your personal finances.
Protect your finances with Hansford Bell
Is The Budget a concern? With so many changes across a wide range of sectors and outputs, the domino effect of the budget is hard to predict. While personal income taxes won’t change, the rates of your investments might. Maintaining a proper financial life plan can give you the reassurance and oversight you needed to keep a handle on your assets, and that’s what the expert team at Hansford Bell is here to help you achieve.
There’s more to come from us as we dive deep and fully analyse the potential impact of the new Budget on personal finance throughout the UK. In the meantime, if you have any concerns or need support managing your money, get in touch today.
Disclaimer: this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice.
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