Salisbury residents react to Jeremy Hunt's Spring budget

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced another 2p cut to National Insurance contributions, as well as increase in the threshold for child benefits, and a new tax on vaping products from October 2026.

Not everyone in Salisbury was convinced by the budget, with one man saying they 'won't make much of a difference', but another woman saying the budget may even have swung her vote to the Conservative party. 

Read more: Budget 2024: What the National Insurance cut means for you

Megan Yateman, 21, from Salisbury and the mother of two infants, said that the new childcare measures were very helpful. 

She even went as far to say that the measures have made it more likely that she will vote Conservative in the upcoming election. 

This comes after the news that the government have increased the threshold for Child Benefits was increased from £50,000 to £60,000, as well as the six-month extension of The Household Support Fund. 

In a boost to the hospitality industry, the government today announced that alcohol duty will stay frozen until February 2025.

Emil Szoma

Emil Szoma is the general manager of the Ox Row Inn. 

He says that he hopes the changes will continue to relieve the pressures of the industry’s operating costs that are “still considerably high since lockdown.”

The measures are also intended to keep inflation as low as possible. 

Helen Kendall is originally from Liverpool but now lives in Blandford Forum, in Dorset.

She said: “Increasing the childcare threshold to parents earning £60,000 is sensible, any more there would be a lot. I think this is reasonable in the current economy.”

She believed that the changes to child support payments are a good thing.

She also shared her thoughts on the national insurance changes, believing it would be nice if they could cut it more.

She said: “I think the cut to national insurance should be higher but then that would have to come from somewhere else. It seems there are a lot of good policies, it is on the right track.”

There were a number of people, especially pensioners, who were disappointed with the budget. 

This is because they felt that most of the policies were not relevant to them. 

Shaun Carthy, 55 and also from Salisbury said that the measures were “alright”. 

Despite measures such as the reduction of National Insurance, and the freeze in Alcohol Duty, Mr Carthy was overall dismissive of the government's new policies. 

Roger Garrett is a resident of Salisbury. He believes the budget “doesn’t have much effect” on himself, but that the Labour Party came out looking stronger.

He said: “I watched Kier Starmer’s speech, and I believe it was the strongest speech he has given as the Leader of the Opposition.”

“He put it to the Tories and it shows he can be strong because he totally showed them up”