Plans to increase National Insurance Contributions for the self-employed have been scrapped, the Government has announced.

In his Spring Budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced Class 4 NI contributions would increase from 9% to 10% in April 2018, and to 11% in 2019.

However, the plans have been dropped after being criticised for breaking a 2015 Conservative manifesto pledge.

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), welcomed the Government's U-turn.


He said: "At a time when we need to do everything we can to ensure economic stability, this would have been a destabilising tax increase which would have hit large numbers of tradespeople on quite modest incomes.

"That would have felt very unfair and would have been in danger of undermining the entrepreneurial spirit Britain will need to rely on as we approach the economic uncertainty of Brexit.

"There is an important debate to be had about how we ensure an even playing field in the taxation of the self-employed and the directly employed. But we need to do that in a way that allows people to plan ahead and ensures the total package of tax and benefits is fair to the self-employed."

(LM/MH)