Spring Budget 2017: Tax-Free Childcare to start from April

He said that this would save parents up to £2,000 per child per year.

In response to widespread concerns about the effect of rising business rates from April, the Chancellor said that those businesses that will be taken out of small business rate relief for the first time will benefit from an extra cap, which means that they will not see an increase to their rates of more than £50 a month.

In addition, £300m will be allocated to local authorities for a discretionary fund for ‘hard cases in their area’.

The chancellor also announced changes to National Insurance Contributions.

He said that the differences in NICS contributions of the self-employed and employed were no longer justified because the new state pension had removed the disparity between them and they used public services in the same way.

Self-employed workers will see changes to their NICs to bring them in line with NICs paid by employees.

The Chancellor said that he was abolishing class 2 NICs from April 2018 and Class 4 NICs will rise from 9 per cent to 10 per cent, with a further 1 per cent rise in 2019.

However, self-employed workers earning less than £16,250 a year will still see a reduction in their NICs bill.

Mr Hammond also confirmed that the National Living Wage will rise to £7.50 in April.

The soft drinks levy will rise from 18p to 24p per litre.

The tax raised will be used to fund the Department for Education with £1 billion for school sports and healthy living programmes.

As announced by the Prime Minister earlier this week, there will be a further 110 free schools in addition to the 500 already announced, including specialist maths schools.

Free school transport will also be extended to children on free school meals attending selective schools.

An extra £260m will be invested in school buildings.

• Spring Budget 2017 documents

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