Aircoach boss Dervla McKay says petrol and diesel duty freeze will help businesses

Ms. McKay said: “The Chancellor’s decision to freeze fuel duty and retain the 5p cut in petrol and diesel for another 12 months is an important step to help alleviate fuel pressures as profit margins continue to be squeezed by the cost of doing business.”

Announcing his Spring Budget 2023 in the British House of Commons on Wednesday, Mr. Hunt said he was freezing fuel duty due to the continuing high levels of inflation.

He also froze duties on pints and extended a tax-free allowance on pensions.

“For a further 12 months I’m going to maintain the 5p cut…and I’m going to freeze fuel duty too.

“That saves the average driver £100 next year and around £200 since the 5p cut was introduced,” he told MPs.

Mr. Hunt’s Spring Budget 2023 document which was also published on Wednesday states: “Households are facing price rises beyond energy costs.

"The government will spend over £5 billion maintaining fuel duty at current levels for the next 12 months, including keeping the 5p cut in place.”

The Chancellor also announced increases to the annual tax-free pension allowance. He claimed ‘unpredictable pension tax charges’ had been leading to some senior NHS clinicians to retire early.

“I will increase the pensions annual tax-free allowance by 50 per cent from £40,000 to £60,000. Some have also asked me to increase the Lifetime Allowance from its £1 million limit.

“But I have decided not to do that. Instead I will go further and abolish the Lifetime Allowance altogether.

"It’s a pension tax reform that will stop over 80 per cent of NHS doctors from receiving a tax charge, incentivise our most experienced and productive workers to stay in work for longer, and simplify our tax system, taking thousands of people out of the complexity of pension tax,” Mr. Hunt told MPs.

Duties on pints have also been frozen in an attempt, Mr. Hunt, said to promote one of ‘our...most treasured community institutions, the great British pub’. The measure will also be applied to pubs in the North.

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"In December, I extended the alcohol duty freeze until August 1, after which duties will go up in line with inflation in the usual way.

“But today, I will do something that was not possible when we were in the EU and significantly increase the generosity of Draught Relief, so that from August 1 the duty on draught products in pubs will be up to 11p lower than the duty in supermarkets, a differential we will maintain as part of a new Brexit pubs guarantee,” he stated.

He claimed Irish pubs in the North will benefit due to the recently agreed deal between the British Government and the European Union.

“Thanks to the Windsor Framework negotiated by my Right Honourable Friend the Prime Minister, that change will now also apply to every pub in Northern Ireland,” he said.

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