tonight at ten... millions of people will pay more in tax and more for their energy as the chancellor unveils his plans to tackle the cost of living. jeremy hunt says the most vulnerable will be protected as the uk grapples with recession, the highest level of tax since world war ii and the biggest fall in living standards for half a century. i have tried to be fair by following two broad principles. firstly, we ask those with more to contribute more. and secondly, we avoid the tax rises that damage growth. the conservatives have picked the pockets of purses and wallets of the entire country, as the chancellor has deployed a raft of stealth taxes taking billions of pounds from ordinary working people.

help with energy bills will be cut back — from april, typical bills will rise from £2,500 to £3,000 a year. but pensions and benefits will go up by more than 10% in line with inflation, and the minimum wage will rise too. it's all looking positive. i'm quite happy. yeah, i'm quite overwhelmed, actually. how are we going to make ends meet? how are we going to pay for our bills? pay for our gas and electric? i have absolutely no idea. and coming up, they can't wait to get started, but that heat delays wales�*s training session on monday. good evening. millions of people will pay more in tax, more for energy bills and face high inflation as the uk

faces a recession. the chancellor, jeremy hunt, has unveiled his plans to tackle the cost of living crisis and rebuild the economy. he said his priorities were stability, growth and public services. and this is what he announced. income tax thresholds will be frozen until 2028, meaning as your pay rises, you'll be dragged into higher tax bands, so millions of people will pay more in income tax. also, anyone earning more than £125,000 a year will now pay the top rate of tax — 45p in a pound — though different rates apply in scotland. there will be more help with energy bills, but it will be less generous. from april, a typical household will pay £3,000 a year for gas and electricity. the windfall tax on oil and gas companies, who've profited from soaring energy bills, will rise from 25% to 35% and be extended until 2028. spending on public services in england will rise more slowly than planned, with some departments facing cuts after the next election.

but there will be extra money for schools, the nhs and social care in england for the next two years. but there's good news for those on pensions and benefits — they will rise by more than 10% from april, in line with inflation. the national living wage will also rise by more than 9% to £10.42 per hour. the chancellor said he was having to make difficult decisions to ensure a "shallower downturn", and blamed the recession on russia. but labour said the country's economic challenges have been the result of government mistakes, and notjust global factors. in a moment we'll be going through the detail and how it'll affect you with with our economics and business editors, but first, here's our political editor, chris mason. it's not even eight weeks since we reflected on the last chancellor's big moment, which sent the markets into turmoil and brought down the prime minister. 55 days on, under the same governing party, and a colossal

change of direction. now it'sjeremy hunt's turn. i now call the chancellor of- the exchequer to make a statement. jeremy hunt. in the face of unprecedented global headwinds, families, pensioners, businesses, teachers, nurses and many others are worried about the future. so today, we deliver a plan to tackle the cost of living crisis and rebuild our economy. 0ur priorities are stability, growth and public services. the picture is bleak. the government's independent analysts say living standards are falling by the largest amount for 70 years. price rises will ease but the economy is shrinking. they confirm that our actions today help inflation to fall sharply from the middle of next year.

they also judge that the uk, like other countries, is now in recession. and tax is going up. i have tried to be fair by following two broad principles. firstly, we ask those with more to contribute more. and secondly, we avoid the tax rises that damage growth. although my decisions today do lead to a substantial tax increase, we have not raised headline rates of taxation. but they have frozen the levels at which we pay various taxes, meaning, over time, we end up paying much more. and the best paid will be paying a higher rate of income tax. so what about government spending? there will be less of it overall than had been thought, but listen to this on schools in england. because we want school standards to continue to rise for every single child, we are going to do more than protect the schools budget. we will increase it. and on the health service in england...

i will increase the nhs budget in each of the next two years by £3.3 billion. on both health and education, there will be an equivalent option for an increase for scotland, wales and northern ireland. the state pension will keep pace with the rise in prices, as will all benefits in england, scotland and wales. mr hunt's concluding claim about his plans was this. it shows you don't need to choose either a strong economy or good public services. with conservatives, and only with conservatives, you get both. and i commend this statement to the house. the opposition parties here responded with derision. the mess we are in is the result of 12 weeks of conservative chaos but also 12 years of conservative economic failure. growth, dismal.

investment, down. wages, squeezed. public services, crumbling. these difficult choices _ are of nothing compared to what many of our constituents face. the tories spent the summer- squabbling in a leadership contest when they should have been preparing for this difficult winter ahead. - we are talking about 1.2 billion additional for wales. that actually doesn't touch the sides of what the welsh government themselves have predicted with the sort of cuts they will need to make, in real terms, they will be around about £4 billion short in three years' time. tell me what you've been doing here. at a school in south london this afternoon, i had the chance to askjeremy hunt the questions you might want answering. chancellor, what do you say to people tonight who are facing the biggest drop in living standards since the 1950s? these are real challenges for families up and down the country. i'm not pretending these aren't going to be difficult times, but there is a plan, there is hope, and if we follow this plan, if we stick with it,

we can get through to the other side, make the recession shallower than it might otherwise have been, and give hope to families that we can get back to more normality. in truth, though, you have ducked the difficult decisions until after the next election, when you might be gone. i have been accused of many things, but ducking difficult decisions... postponing some of them. a conservative chancellor standing up in the house of commons and saying there will be £25 billion of tax increases, that is facing up to difficult decisions, but it is facing up to them in a balanced way that recognises that, for the next 18 months, we are going to be in recession. can we ever trust a conservative politician again who talks about being keen on low taxes, because we have the highest tax burden for nearly 80 years? 0nly conservatives understand that successful economies need to be lightly taxed if they are going to be dynamic and innovative. you say that, and yet they keep going up. yes, because we have a very

exceptional situation. we had a once in a century pandemic. we had the fuel price hikes caused by vladimir putin. you are a tax—raising chancellor presiding over a recession and government spending not what you hoped it would be. do you have any hope of winning the next election? conservatives win elections when they are trusted with the economy. and what you have seen today is a conservative chancellor outlining a very difficult path that gets us through this crisis. a grim picture which many will conclude feels more grim courtesy of today's announcements. but the government wants to try to convince you it is still not as bad as it might have been without their decisions today. chris mason, bbc news. so the government's independent forecaster, the office for budget responsibility, says that once rising prices are taken into account, people's living standards will fall

to what they were in 2013 — the biggest fall for generations. a decade of prosperity wiped out. here's our economics editor, faisal islam. an energy shock, a pandemic, an extraordinary mini budget reversal, multiple changes of pm and chancellor — it's quite the backdrop to a very unusual statement and the big picture is that this was effectively two budgets in one. and over a five year period. you can see this clearly from totting up the cost of all the measures today. the pain — the major tax rises and spending cuts — actually occur in the last four bars here, that's the years after the general election. that is designed to impress upon markets that the chancellor is serious about cutting borrowing after the mini budget turmoil. but before the election, over here, there is in fact a bit of a giveaway actually.

especially if you include the energy support built. £70 billion of support built. £70 billion of support put in by the government before that election take away afterwards and why? because the chancellor is very worried about not worsening a recession over here. it's a budget which gives £100 billion away over the next two years to help households with their rising energy bills, helps to take about two and a half percentage points off an historic peak in inflation, a ao—year high. but then, over the medium term, to meet the chancellor's objective of getting debt falling in five years�* time, he then takes here are today's borrowing numbers in yellow. the key thing is that they are large and they stay high. back in march, the official forecasts for government borrowing were much lower — here in blue. the difference is huge. if you add it up, it's well over £300 billion in extra borrowing. remember, this is after all

the u—turns, afterfurther tough by a massive energy shock, high inflation, and higher interest rate costs for the government in particular, and during the mini budget in september, it was not even having these numbers that was one of the big factors that caused chaos. this is pretty remarkable too — the proportion of tax we pay will be at the highest level for three quarters of a century, higher than assumed before the energy crisis. this is down to the government having to intervene more after the pandemic and energy crisis. the burden at first before in companies and the more wealthy but the net will spread more widely after the election but incredible to think that the mini budget saw the biggest tax cut in five decades and this is where we are eight weeks on. the tax burden is rising

really quite fast. what do we mean by the tax burden? the fraction of national income taken in taxes. it is going to reach its highest level essentially in history over the next two or three years. that is very, very high by uk standards. it's worth saying it is not especially high by western european standards, but it's a very different structure of the economy going forward. the forecast tax rises and to a large degree the uk inflation rate will drive incredible falls in household disposable income could have this means a significant reduction in living standards. the 4.3% hit this year is the largest fall since records began in 1956, and 7% including next year which is £1700 per household over those couple of years and indeed, this takes living standards back to where they were a decade ago. that is the pattern, the economic situation causing historic pain to living standards and the government wants

to help alleviate it now during a recession and before the election but after that, a post dated check on some unspecified spending cuts and tax rises will come. to date will accept the terms of trade for both conservatives and labour for the next half decade. the rising cost of energy has been at the heart of this cost of living crisis — and the chancellor announced that help with bills would be extended next year, but it would be less generous. our business editor simonjack has been looking through the plans. big changes coming. worth looking at the current help available for energy bills with the government energy price guarantee, the unit cost of energy is capped so a typical household would spend around £2500 annually if you use more energy, you will pay more. currently, every household is receiving a discount on their bills of £400, receiving a discount on their bills of £1100, spread out at £66 a month between october and next march with further support available for people

on low incomes. today the government has announced it will reduce energy support from april next year, millions of households paying more for their energy with a typical household bill rising to £3000. that universal £66 monthly payment will end in april to be replaced by more targeted support for the most vulnerable including £900 for people on means tested benefits, £300 for pensioners and £150 for people on this ability benefit. it will not help people like daniel who will not qualify for extra support but has had to take on a second job in the evenings to pay the bills. we've been able to almost survive with the assistance that's come through from the government. this is almost going to be taken away from us through no fault of our own is a very frightening, very worrying, very scary time for us as a young family. how are we going to make ends meet? how are we going to for pay our bills? pay for our gas and electric? i have absolutely no idea. now, there have been calls

for energy companies making profits from the current high global energy prices to pay more tax. in may, the one—off tax imposed on energy company profits — known as the windfall tax — was raised to 25%, but today, the chancellor said it would go up again to 35% from next january — and it would be expanded to include other electricity generators, and last until 2028. jeremy hunt said together he expected the measures to raise £14 billion next year alone. but companies and business groups say it could deter vital investment in renewables. there will be some concerns that the new levy on electricity generation - might mean we see less investment in renewable energy, whereas i think- what businesses and people generally want to see is an increase in our- investment in renewable energy. that is the only way out of the energy. crisis we face over the long term. one thing that was missing was any detail on how much support business will get with their energy bills from april next year — more detail was promised —

but few firms will feel confident enough to invest and grow with that uncertainty hanging over them. so, what does that mean for the nhs, schools and social care? in a moment we'll hear from our social affairs editor alison holt and education editor branwen jeffreys. but first, here's our health editor, hugh pym. there is some relief among nhs leaders. in england they had feared they would be told to stick to their previously agreed budget of £157 billion for next year to wear with inflation would eat into that and they might even have to cut some services but the chancellor has allocated an extra £3.3 billion next year and the year after and there will be proportioned funding increases for scotland, wales and northern ireland. health leaders have indicated they can work with that. but there are uncertainties. what if inflation is higher than expected, what about the pay bill if the staff vacancies are still hard to fill? what does it mean for the

cost of agency workers? and what if covid is worse than anticipated? for the nhs, this winter and beyond, it's difficult times. for those who need help with day—to—day living, whether it's in their own home or in a care home, today's statement may ease some of the immediate problems of getting help from a care system in crisis, but it also delays long—promised support for those who face so—called catastrophic costs. the plan to cap or limit the amount of money that any one person pays towards their care in england to £86,000 was due to come in next year. it will now be delayed for more than two years. sir andrew dilnot, who devised the cap more than a decade ago, describes that as extraordinarily disappointing, saying that vulnerable people will not have certainty about how their care will be funded. the chancellor says the care sector will be able to keep the money earmarked for reform and local authorities will be able to raise more money through council tax.

he calculates that up to £2.8 billion extra will be raised for social care next year, £4.7 billion the year after, but the key words here are "up to". it's unlikely all councils will want to raise council tax to the maximum at a time when families are struggling to pay their bills. schools in england are getting extra cash. £2.3 billion a year for the next two years. once you take into account all the rising costs, that means that by 2024 the amount being spent on each pupil will be at least where it was in 2010. but head teachers don't yet know what the pay increase is going to be for their staff next year. but i'm standing in a further education college and there's no extra money for the education of 16 to 19—year—olds.

today, the government stressed the importance of skills to our economy, but in colleges like this, that deliver a lot of skills training, the amount being spent per student by 2024 will still be significantly lower than it was a decade ago. there's no extra money for early years either, even though nurseries and childminders are also facing rising costs. instead, the government wants to look at whether it should allow each member of staff to look after more two—year—olds in order to lower the overheads. branwen bra nwen jeffreys there. there were many other announcements and spending pledges made by the chancellor today. here are a few of them. local authorities in england will be able to increase their council tax bills by up to 5% — the vast majority are expected to do that. the money will go towards social care. if you have an electric car, you'll have to tax it from 2025 —

at the moment electric cars are exempt. major infrastructure projects such as northern powerhouse rail, hs2 and the nuclear power plant at sizewell c, will continue to be built. the overseas aid budget will be kept at 0.5% of national income — short of the government's 0.7% original target — and the defence budget will be kept at 2% of gdp. jeremy hunt said his plans would protect those on low incomes and the most vulnerable in society, with a rise in the living wage and a cap on rents for social housing. michael buchanan has spent the day in southend getting reaction to the chancellor's plans. 6:30am, and lecturer adam weaver is preparing breakfast. there you go. before heading out for an early meeting at his further education college. each day, it seems, brings a new financial challenge for the father of three. this morning getting the train, that's going to cost me £3 more

than what it would cost me if i got it after 9:30am, so i'll change what i have for lunch. as adam heads out he has little hope in the chancellor's statement. public sector wages, after all, have been squeezed for a decade. over the road, wendy wilson is opening the local cafe. two months ago, rising prices forced her to give up her dogs. the pressure hasn't relented. even her son's offering to help. his pocket money i give him on the 14th every month, he wanted to give some back to me for the cost of the electrics, because he knows i am struggling. so for a little 11—year—old boy to understand, it's quite sad. cluny square is home to high numbers of low—income families, many solely or partially dependent on benefits. the autumn statement really matters, therefore. inflation for people here is higher than average as they spend more of their money on food and energy. wendy will be better off due to the rise in benefits and the minimum wage, the cap on social housing rents and receive a £900 cost

of living payment next year. yeah, i'm quite overwhelmed, actually. you know, the minimum wage is going to help, and the benefits rise, because it will meet what's going on in the shops. at the chippy, jack van looy was serving the last of the lunchtime rush. he says the minimum wage rise he'll get won't make much difference. yeah, it's only going to get worse. i don't see it getting much better. it's still only a small jump considering the big jump in the increase in bills, isn't it? as expected, adam didn't personally benefit from the statement, but he was still broadly supportive. i think it's much fairer than the last announcement. my personal hope is that it will balance out the situation with mortgages. 55 days after a mini budget that dismayed those on low incomes, today, many feel more positive — hopeful, even. michael buchanan,

bbc news, southend. let's assess the impact across the uk — in a moment we'll hearfrom tomos morgan in cardiff and emma vardy in belfast, but first let's go to our scotland editorjames cook in glasgow. the chancellor, jeremy hunt, says his decision to increase public spending on health and education in england means there will be an extra £1.5 billion available for the scottish government's budget over two years, although the first minister, nicola sturgeon, says that money is being swallowed up by inflation, and she accuses the conservatives of re—imposing austerity. now, it will be up to the acting finance secretary, john swinney, to decide how to spend the money he does have, and that will happen next month. he will also have to decide whether or not to replicate some of the big tax changes in mr hunt's statement. now, some of what the chancellor set out does apply here, including, for example, the increases in pensions and in some benefits.

0n the issue of a windfall tax, there is some support for that in parts of scotland, but in the north—east of the country in particular, there is concern that it might affect investment in the north sea, including in renewable energy. one of the problems facing northern ireland at the moment is that there is a big black hole in public finances. some £660 million has been overspent on public services due to the cost of so many things going up. and there is no functioning government in place here at the moment either to help tackle it. today, the chancellor said that northern ireland would get an extra £650 million of cash in the funding it gets from central government, so that might ease the pressure here a bit, but it does not completely balance the books as it is spread over two years. there was another key announcement today, aimed at the many homes in northern ireland who use heating oil. the £100 grant they were due to get has been doubled to £200, and is now in fact being given

to all households on top of the £400 they are due to receive to help take the edge off those high household heating bills this winter. according to the 0ns, if you compare the four home nations, wales receives the highest amount of state support, so the decision today to raise benefits in line with inflation and keep the pension triple lock will no doubt be a small comfort for some during this cost of living crisis. however, the decision byjeremy hunt to keep public sector spending the same for the next two years hasn't gone down so well with the welsh labour government. the finance minister here said that people will be spending more for less as public service budgets are squeezed by inflation. wales, along with scotland and northern ireland, will get some extra funding — £1.2 billion here over the next two years. however, the welsh government say they are down £1.5 billion compared to last year and they are blaming that on the same thing that is affecting so many other things in our economy at the moment — the rise in inflation.

thomas morgan there. 0ur political editor chris mason is at westminster for us this evening. after the turmoil of the last few months, will the chancellor's plans be enough to study things? i months, will the chancellor's plans be enough to study things?- be enough to study things? i think there is a fair— be enough to study things? i think there is a fair chance of _ be enough to study things? i think there is a fair chance of that, - be enough to study things? i think there is a fair chance of that, not i there is a fair chance of that, not because the conservatives are comfortable about cranking up tax and spending less than they intended to, but more because of what's happened in the last few months, the conservatives standing on the edge of the precipice and contemplating oblivion and concluding frankly any other option was probably better, and so the appetite for insurrection and so the appetite for insurrection and civil war has died down a bit. but to be honest, in truth, the fate of this political party tonight matters far less than the reality for millions of households who felt squeezed for a long time already and are likely to be squeezed for several more years yet, and the judgment on what we've heard today will be, does it make a bad

situation not quite as bad, or, does it make it worse, and the big political argument to come is who can be seen to be a competent and trustworthy custodian of very, very difficult times. a£111" trustworthy custodian of very, very difficult times.— difficult times. our political editor chris _ difficult times. our political editor chris mason, - difficult times. our political editor chris mason, thank l difficult times. our political. editor chris mason, thank you. there's more detail and analysis of the autumn statement, including what it means for you, on our website. you can find it all in our cost of living — tackling it together section. now a look at some other stories making the news today. a dutch court has found three men guilty of murder for shooting down the mh17 plane over eastern ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people. the trial took place without any of the defendants being present. all three men convicted are believed to be in russia, which will not extradite them. about 350 ground handling staff at heathrow airport will begin a three—day strike, starting tomorrow, in a dispute over pay, says the unite union. they all work for the aviation

services company menzies, and the action will impact flights in terminals 2, 3 and 4. heathrow says it shouldn't lead to flights being cancelled. six more days of strike action by royal mail workers have been announced. the cwu says its members will walk out on the ninth, 11th, 14th, 15th, 23rd and 24th of december, as part of a dispute over pay and conditions. england and wales play their first world cup matches in qatar on monday. they have been trying acclimatise to the heat in doha, where it is unseasonably hot, as hywel griffith has been finding out. this may be a winter world cup, but in the desert city of doha, temperatures are unseasonably hot. so sweltering, wales delayed their first training session by two and a half hours. as tournament newbies, there's a lot of acclimatising to be done. i'm not used to weather like this, being obviously from wales. we went for a walk about 11 o'clock and just walking round the streets i was just sweating,

just walking, so we were all thinking, imagine what it's going to be like training. some though are already managing to chill out. the supporters who are coming here are in for a very different tournament experience and notjust because of the weather. there are 32 countries all playing in one city. the authorities are trying to keep everything tightly controlled. we are live on danish television. security guards tried to take this danish journalist off air as he broadcast live. qatar's supreme committee later apologised. sensitive subjects are being raised. earlier, england's players met a group of migrant workers. they've also discussed the rights of gay and lesbian fans. we've come to a country where we respect rules and respect everything that goes on in this country. listen, we are all here for one thing and that's to play football. but in terms of what we believe in as a team and what we believe in as players, that's football for all and everybody to be included our great sport, yeah. in this tournament, cultures as well as countries will collide. concerns over bringing the world cup to qatar are far from over.