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Families and ordinary working people will welcome the rise in the National Living Wage and changes to Universal Credit to ensure people keep more of what they earn. Together with a further freeze in fuel duty saving motorists on average £10 every time they fill up their car, today’s measures will provide greater financial security and help Northern Ireland prosper and grow.

In order to raise revenue, which is required to fund spending commitments I am making today, it will rise from 10% currently, to 12% from next June.

By injecting an additional £400m into venture capital funds through the British Business Bank, unlocking £1 billion of new finance for growing firms.

The LPC is required to make recommendations on the pace of increase in the National Living Wage such that it reaches 60 per cent of typical earnings by 2020, subject to sustained economic growth. The key challenge this year has been uncertainty in relation to the economic outlook following the decision to leave the EU, and whether we needed to go more slowly than our previous intention of straight line increases in the relative value of the rate.

Today (23 November 2016) at Autumn Statement, the Chancellor set out announcements which will build an economy that works for everyone, in Northern Ireland, and the whole of the UK.