Bill savings and cheap pints: What Budget means for Oxfordshire

Mr Hunt’s headline announcement was the expansion of free childcare for one- and two-year-olds.

Working parents in England with children as young as nine months will be able to claim 30 hours a week of childcare and full childcare support for all under fives will be available from September 2025 for those eligible.

Nurseries will also receive increased funding, with their budget to increase to £288 million next year, which is up from £204 million in September.

READ MORE: Jeremy Clarkson hearing: People speak on economic benefits

Despite criticism from Tory backbenchers, Mr Hunt revealed the corporation tax rise will go ahead as planned, rising from 19 per cent to 25 per cent next month.

This rise is not popular with former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

Mr Hunt’s most popular announcement with the wider public is likely to be the extension of cost-of-living support.

The Chancellor confirmed the UK Government’s energy price guarantee, which caps average household bills at £2,500, will be extended at its current level from April to June.

However, it will not rise by £500 to £3,000 next month.

Sign up to Ed Halford's free weekly Politics newsletter here (Image: Newsquest)

The Treasury have argued they will save more than four million households £45 a year on their energy bills.

With the government concerned about how leisure centres are coping with the cost-of-living crisis, £63 million has been set aside to help leisure centres with their energy costs for swimming pools.

Pub drinkers will be happy to learn that there will be an increase in draught relief, which the Treasury predicts will make alcohol duty 11p lower on pulled pints compared to supermarket sales.

However, tax on other alcohol is set to soar by 10.1 per cent in August in line with inflation, and the price of cigarettes will also become more expensive after tobacco duty was increased.

One of the main changes the Chancellor announced was reforming annual pension contributions.

Mr Hunt said the £40,000 cap on tax-free annual pension contributions will rise to £60,000.

Jeremy Hunt

The lifetime allowance on pension savings, previously labelled the “doctors’ pension tax” by the British Medical Association, was also scrapped.

Mr Hunt said removing the pension threshold would simplify the tax system and “incentivise our most experienced and productive workers to stay in work for longer”.

Parents on universal credit will be paid childcare support up front and the amount they can claim will be increased by several hundred pounds.

Despite the economy due to contract by 0.2 per cent this year, the Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted it will increase by 1.8 per cent in 2024 and by more than 2 per cent in the following two years.

It is likely that childcare is an area which will become a major battleground at the next election, as the Labour Party is expected to announce its own reforms very soon.