Autumn Statement 2014: The winners and losers

Winners

Homeless veterans

A £3million grant was announced towards a vital hostel in east London, part of the Independent, i paper and Evening Standard's Christmas campaign.

Most home-buyers

Osborne's stamp duty reforms will benefit 98 per cent of people buying a home; all apart from the most expensive (£937,000-plus). The residents of Kensington and Chelsea might be revolting...

Small businesses

A £1billion package of support for small and medium-sized businesses was announced, including funding boosts to existing lending schemes. In addition, from April 2016, employers will not have to pay National Insurance contributions (NICs) for all but the highest-earning apprentices aged under 25.

Low-income taxpayers

The tax-free personal allowance will go up in April 2015, to £10,600. This is the new amount at which people begin to start paying tax.

Young air travellers (and the massive multinational airlines flying them around)

Starting next May, under-12s will pay no air tax on flights, while the same will apply to under-16s from March 2016.

Widows and widowers

From today onwards, if an ISA-holder dies, their spouse will be able to inherit their ISA benefits via an additional ISA allowance. This allowance will be able to be used from April 6 next year.

The North!

The chancellor explicitly pledged to create a "Northern Powerhouse" through investment in transport and broadband infrastructure.

Low-income students

From 2016-17, students under the age of 30 will be able to apply for income-contingent loans for postgraduate taught masters of up to £10,000 - loans that will beat commercial rates.

Losers

George Osborne

The Chancellor will be borrowing £12.5billion more than he forecast in March 2014's budget. The forecast was revised up by £7.6billion.

Myleene Klass

The new stamp duty rates will mean no one pays tax on the first £125,000, and people pay two per cent up to £250,000, five per cent up to £925,000, 10 per cent to £1.5million and 12 per cent on above that. The majority will benefit, but it will hurt the rich. So Myleene, and other super-wealthy home buyers, will lose out.

Multi-national companies/Google

Osborne announced a 25 per cent tax on profits multinational companies make from economic activity in Britain that they "artificially" move offshore. Shares in Unilever, GSK and AstraZeneca have all fallen in the wake of the move, dubbed the "Google tax".

The people of Bicester

Residents do not want the town to become a Garden City. One local councillor called the plans "ghastly" while resident Ed Hamill said he and his wife had moved to the area "because it was quiet and underdeveloped". "We've already had to accept the awful retail outlet and the traffic that comes with it, then a new ecotown and now this."

Danny Alexander

Last week the internet was all a-flutter over George Osborne's appearance at PMQs. This week the spotlight turned to Danny Alexander.

Welfare recipients

The rates of Universal Credit were frozen for those in work. But Osborne has also won

EU Migrants

As the Independent's social affairs editor Emily Dugan reports, Osborne's plan to block EU migrants from receiving jobseekers' allowance if they have not got a reasonable prospect of finding work was an "overture to Ukip sympathisers." However the measure itself only saves £15million.

Local councils

Ministers have cut local government funding, but London Councils chairman and Hackney mayor Jules Pipe warned today London councils were facing a combined £3.4 billion funding deficit by 2020.

The North!

Just for being so badly patronised.

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