The Budget 2017: what does it mean for Britain's startups?

The state of the economy

• Growth forecast for 2017 downgraded from 2% to 1.5%
• GDP downgraded to 1.4%, 1.3% and 1.5% in subsequent years before rising to 1.6% in 2021-22
• Productivity growth and business investment also revised down.

Business

• VAT threshold for small business to remain at £85,000 for two years. Helps to keep a huge chunk of small businesses out of VAT.
• £500m for 5G mobile networks, fibre broadband and artificial intelligence.
• £540m to support the growth of electric cars, including more charging points.
• A further £2.3bn allocated for investment in research and development.
• Rises in business rates to be pegged to CPI measure of inflation, not RPI.
• Staircase tax: businesses hit will have original bill reinstated.
• Income tax to be applied from April 2019 on digital economy royalties relating to UK sales which are paid to a low-tax jurisdiction.
• Does your startup hire someone on minimum wage? The “national living wage”. From April will rise 4.4% from £7.50 an hour to £7.83 

Brexit

• £3bn to be set aside over next two years to prepare UK for every possible outcome as it leaves.

Alcohol, tobacco, gambling and fuel

• Tobacco will rise by 2% above Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation while the minimum duty on cigarettes introduced in March will also rise, as will duty on hand-rolled tobacco.
• Duty on beer, wine, spirits and most ciders will be frozen.
• Vehicle excise duty for diesel cars that do not meet latest standards to rise by one band in April 2018
• Tax hike will not apply to van owners.
• Existing diesel supplement in company car tax to rise by 1%.
• Proceeds to fund a new £220m clean air fund.
• Fuel duty rise for petrol and diesel cars scheduled for April 2018 scrapped.

Personal taxation

• Tax-free personal allowance to rise to £11,850 in April 2018
• Higher-rate tax threshold to increase to £46,350
• Short-haul air passenger duty rates and long-haul economy rates to be frozen, paid for by an increase on premium-class tickets and on private jets

Health and social care

• £10bn capital investment fund for hospitals

Housing

• Long-term goal to build 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s
• £44bn in government support, including loan guarantees, to boost construction skills
• Review to look at ways of speeding up planning permission for new developments.
• £28m for Kensington and Chelsea council to provide counselling services and mental health support for victims of the Grenfell fire and for regeneration of surrounding area.
• One million new homes on the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor by 2050.

Other

• Helping to create the tech founders of the future? 8,000 new computer science teachers to be recruited at cost of £84m.
• Second devolution deal for the West Midlands.
• £1.7bn transport fund for city regions.
• £2bn for Scottish government, £1.2bn for Welsh government and £650m for Northern Ireland executive.