WITH April marking the start of the new tax year, I am encouraged to see a raft of steps being outlined by the Chancellor to support hard-working families and businesses.

By increasing the tax-free personal allowance from £11,500 to £11,850, a typical taxpayer will pay £1,075 less in income tax in 2018-19 than in 2010. Since then, this Government has cut income tax for over 30 million people, lifted half a million taxpayers out of the higher rate and taken four million of the lowest paid out of tax altogether.

Increasing the National Living Wage from £7.50 to £7.83 an hour means full-time workers will earn £2,000 more per year than when this was introduced in 2016. Similarly, we will see the biggest increase in 10 years to National Minimum Wage rates for young people.

Also announced is an increase in the full basic State Pension by three per cent to more than £6,500 per year - £1,450 higher than in 2010. Plus, a further raise of the new State Pension to over £8,500 per year, giving pensioners greater security in retirement.

Fuel duty is set to be frozen for the eighth consecutive year at 57.95p per taking the saving for a typical car driver to £850 and the average van driver to over £2,100, compared to Labour’s plans. Likewise, all alcohol duties will continue to be frozen, too. After the cuts and freezes made to beer duty since 2013, the tax on a typical pint will be 12p lower than it would otherwise have been.

To enable more people to realise the dream of home ownership, stamp duty will be cut for 95 per cent of first time buyers. Over the next five years, this tax cut will help over a million get onto the housing ladder and I am pleased that an estimated 60,000 first time buyers have already benefited.

To help those starting out in their careers, the threshold at which people begin to pay back their student loan will increase to £25,000. That figure will continue to rise in line with changes to average earnings and will benefit around 600,000 graduates in 2018-19 by up to £360 each.

The Government has shown a renewed commitment to our high streets by switching the business rates indexation two years earlier than planned. This will save a typical high street shop £800 by 2022-23 and a typical restaurant over £1,600 in the same period. In addition, up to 36,000 pubs could benefit from a new £1,000 discount on business rates, helping to support these valuable community assets.

By taking a balanced approached to the public finances, this Government is getting our national debt down, making long-term investments in Britain’s future, supporting our public services and – crucially – keeping taxes low for Britain’s families and businesses so they keep more in their pockets.