Autumn Statement: The Key Points At A Glance

The main measures and forecasts from the Chancellor George Osborne in his Autumn Statement:

:: Most working age benefits, including Jobseeker's Allowance, will rise by 1% in each of the next three years. Changes to welfare "save £3.7bn by 2015/16". Child benefit to rise by 1% for two years from April 2014.

:: ISA limit raised to £11,520 and basic state pension to rise 2.5% from April. Public sector workers to see average 1% rise in earnings.

:: National pay arrangement in NHS and prison service to continue, and no changes to civil service arrangements, but greater freedom for schools to set pay in line with performance.

:: Will collect £7bn more in tax than the last Government to tackle "evasion" and loopholes. More resources (£77m) to ensure multinational firms "pay their fair share" and avoidance is reduced.

:: Fuel duty escalator "scrapped". Planned 3p a litre rise due in January is cancelled.

:: Income tax threshold increased by £235 in 2013. Means no tax paid on earnings under £9,440.

:: "Need to ask more of the better off": No new homes tax. From 2014/15 the pension lifetime pot relief will fall from £1.5m to £1.25m; annual allowance down from £50,000 to £40,000. This affects top 2% of pension pots.

:: Threshold for 40% rate of income tax to rise by 1% in 2014 and 2015 from £41,450 to £41,865 and then £42,285.

:: Corporation Tax rate cut by further 1% from April 2014.

:: The Bank Levy Rate will be increased to 0.130% next year.

:: Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount to increase by 1% over the same period, reaching £11,100 and Inheritance Tax nil-band rate to rise from £325,000 now to £329,000 in 2015/16.

:: £1bn more for road improvements - upgrading A1, A30, and M25. Funding guarantee for extension to Northern Line tube.

:: £600m more on scientific research infrastructure.

:: £1bn to expand good schools and build more.

:: The deficit has fallen by a quarter in "just two years". Forecast to fall this year to 6.9% of GDP. Borrowing forecast for 2012/13 is therefore £108bn. It will take one extra year to reach his debt target.

:: Office for Budget Responsibility now forecasts GDP growth -0.1% in 2012, blaming Eurozone crisis. Sees growth of 1.2% in 2013, 2% in 2014 and 2.3% in 2015. OBR expects jobless rate to peak at 8.3% (currently 7.9%).

:: Has delivered £12bn in Whitehall spending cuts. More on the way. Government department resource budgets reduced by 1% next year with schools and hospitals protected.

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West Coast Main Line Future To Be Revealed

A deal allowing Virgin to continue running trains on the West Coast Main Line is expected to be confirmed later.

It is believed Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin could also publish the independent report he commissioned when he was forced to scrap the West Coast franchise bidding process.

Virgin has run the line since 1997, but in August the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that a new 13-year West Coast franchise had been awarded to rival transport company FirstGroup.

It was only after Sir Richard, who had branded the bidding process "insane", mounted a legal challenge to the decision that Mr McLoughlin scrapped the bidding process, saying there had been mistakes by the DfT.

Three DfT officials were suspended and negotiations were started with a view to getting Virgin to run the line for between nine and 13 months before a short interim franchise was offered followed by a longer one later.

The details and length of the shorter deal are expected to be announced today, with speculation that Virgin could carry on for as long as two years.

When he pulled the plug on the West Coast franchise bidding, Mr McLoughlin appointed businessman Sam Laidlaw to produce an independent report into the fiasco.

After producing damning initial findings, which listed failings by the DfT, Mr Laidlaw presented his full report to the department last week.

But with one of the suspended department officials, Kate Mingay, mounting a legal challenge to her suspension, Mr McLoughlin announced that he was delaying the Laidlaw report publication until this week.

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Tesco To Cut Losses On US Chain Fresh & Easy

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Tesco is to launch a review of its loss-making US operations as its chief executive attempts to convince the City that he has a credible strategy to boost the fortunes of Britain's biggest retailer.

I have learned that Philip Clarke will announce today that Tesco is to undertake a strategic review that could lead to the sale or closure of some or all of its US stores. Investment bankers have been appointed to assist with the review, which is expected to take several months.

The statement will signal an ignominious end to Tesco's US ambitions, five years after it opened its first shop there under the Fresh & Easy brand name.

It will also cast a pall over the legacy of Sir Terry Leahy, Mr Clarke's long-serving predecessor, who stepped down last year. Under Sir Terry, Tesco embarked on a plan to emulate the global footprint of Wal-Mart, the owner of Asda, by acquiring and building market share in eastern Europe and Asia.

Tesco operates approximately 200 Fresh & Easy stores, and employs roughly 5,000 people in the US. Since the business was launched, it has accumulated losses running into several hundred million pounds.

Mr Clarke is already under pressure because of the group's sluggish performance in its home market, and has unveiled a £1bn transformation programme focused on improving customer service and the availability of fresh produce in its shops.

The news about the US review come alongside Tesco's third-quarter results, which are expected to reflect the ongoing travails of much of the British retail sector.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, will undoubtedly be keen to see what Mr Clarke says about the health of the high street in the run-up to the crucial Christmas trading period as he makes final preparations for his Autumn Statement.

The Chancellor releases his Autumn Statement today

While Tesco has been treading water under its new boss, rivals including J Sainsbury and Waitrose have been performing strongly.

There was, however, a glimmer of good news for the biggest supermarket chain, with the Financial Times reporting that industry data showed Tesco enjoying stronger-than-expected sales growth in recent weeks.

Tesco declined to comment on Tuesday evening on its plans for Fresh & Easy.

Today's news about the US is likely to please the City, although seasoned Tesco-watchers have been anticipating the development since Mr Clarke said in October that he needed to be persuaded that the US arm had a future in the group.

It is unclear whether there will be a serious appetite from third parties to buy the Fresh & Easy chain, which leaves open the prospect that Tesco may have to make significant lay-offs as part of its plans to exit the US market.

Theoretically, its strategic review could involve Mr Clarke determining that Tesco should persist with its efforts to conquer the US, but analysts said that was highly unlikely.

"He needs to show some clear leadership on this," one said. "Doing nothing is not an option."

The news of Tesco's decision to review its US business comes as it emerged that another British retailer has rather different expectations for its operations in the country.

As I reported earlier on Tuesday evening, Sir Philip Green is to sell a 25% stake in Arcadia's Topshop and Topman chains to Leonard Green & Partners, a private equity group.

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Autumn Statement: Osborne Tightens The Screw

The Chancellor is to admit that more drastic action is needed to balance the Government's books but will warn in his mini-budget that there are no "miracle cures".

George Osborne is to confirm that Whitehall departments are being ordered to find further cuts to fund £5bn of projects designed to kick-start the economy.

In the Autumn Statement he is also widely expected to concede that sluggish growth means it will take longer to tackle the deficit, and that a key coalition target - to have public sector debt falling by 2015-16 - may be missed.

Mr Osborne will argue that he is "confronting the country's problems, instead of ducking them".

"The public know that there are no miracle cures. Just the hard work of dealing with our deficit and ensuring Britain wins the global race," he will say.

The capital projects will include building or expanding up to 100 new academies and free schools over the next two years, with cash directed at areas experiencing a shortage in classroom places, as well as investment in transport and science and skills.

Labour said the announcement amounted to an admission that the reduction in infrastructure spending since 2010 had been "a catastrophic mistake" and weakened the economy.

Health, schools, international aid, HM Revenue and Customs and nuclear decommissioning will be protected from the latest round of cuts.

The Chancellor is also expected to target the pension pots of higher earners.

He may cut the amount of annual tax relief high earners receive on pension contributions from £50,000 a year to £30,000. Implementing the full cut could raise as much as £1.8bn for the Government.

Mr Osborne is expected to announce a crackdown on people and businesses avoiding or evading tax, with a £77m boost for HM Revenue and Customs to track down those not paying their fair share.

He will also use the statement to signal his approval for up to 30 new gas-powered electricity power stations, as well as floating possible tax breaks and regulatory reforms to encourage investment in innovative "fracking" technologies for extracting gas from shale deposits.

Follow Sky's live coverage of the Autumn Statement on Wednesday:

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Tax: Starbucks, Google And Amazon 'Immoral'

By Darren McCaffrey, Sky News Reporter

Starbucks, Google and Amazon have been accused of "immorally" avoiding paying their fair share of tax in the UK, as the Chancellor prepares a blitz on tax dodgers.

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee criticised the companies for the "unconvincing and, in some cases, evasive" evidence they gave on why their corporation tax payments are so low.

Starbucks told the committee it had made a loss for 14 of the 15 years it has operated in the UK, a claim the committee said it found "difficult to believe".

In a report, the MPs added that Amazon's representative left them frustrated because he was "evasive and unprepared to answer legitimate questions".

They also said Google "undermined its own argument" that profits should be taxed in the countries where they are made because it transfers its non-US profits, including from the UK, to Bermuda, which has a more advantageous tax system.

Starbucks says it is reviewing its tax arrangements

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, said: "Global companies with huge operations in the UK generating significant amounts of income are getting away with paying little or no corporation tax here.

"This is outrageous and an insult to British businesses and individuals who pay their fair share.

"Corporation tax revenues have fallen at a time when securing proper income from taxes is more vital than ever.

"There is little credible information about what is going on. The evidence we took from large corporations was unconvincing and, in some cases, evasive."

Starbucks has now declared that it is preparing to change its tax affairs so that it pays more into Britain's coffers and there is growing pressure on others to follow suit.

The report was published as George Osborne prepares to unveil a £154m crackdown on wealthy companies and rich individuals who dodge tax.

Officials will be ordered to use the cash to draft in an army of investigators to target high earners who aggressively avoid or evade paying tax.

The money will also fund extra staff to speed up work challenging multinationals' transfer pricing arrangements to stop global companies using legal loopholes to shift profits out of the UK.

However, Mr Osborne has warned against pricing Britain out of the world economy.

"If we make our taxes less competitive, that will just mean more companies stay out of Britain," he said.

But Katja Hall, from the Confederation of British Industry, told Sky News that tax avoidance is not a widespread problem.

"Companies pay £163bn in tax in the UK every year and the large majority of companies pay the right amount of tax," she said.

The Institute of Directors condemned the "hectoring from Westminster" and called for the tax system to be simplified.

Director General Simon Walker said: "If these firms are immoral to take advantage of tax loopholes, then politicians are surely immoral for creating the loopholes in the first place.

"Taxes should be simpler to cut down on avoidance and relieve the burden our complex tax code puts on companies who do try to do the right thing."

An HMRC spokesman said: "HMRC ensures that multinationals pay the tax due in accordance with UK tax law. We have been very successful in reducing tax avoidance by large businesses in recent years.

"We relentlessly challenge those that persist in avoiding tax and have recovered £29bn additional revenues from large businesses in the last six years, including £4.1bn in the last four years from transfer pricing enquiries alone. These figures speak for themselves."

The latest tax crackdown will be outlined in this week's Autumn Statement, which is also expected to contain bleak news for benefits claimants.

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Dandy Comic Publishes Its Final Print Edition

The Dandy's final printed edition goes on sale today as it marks its 75th anniversary by relaunching as an online-only publication.

Britain's longest-running comic will now be available to download online, and as a smartphone and tablet app.

Dundee-based publisher DC Thompson announced in August that the weekly children's comic would make the transition into cyberspace following dwindling sales in recent years.

The issue features a cameo from Sir Paul McCartney, who said in 1963 it was his ambition to appear in the comic, and a pull-out of the first issue from December 4 1937.

The website will feature old favourites Desperate Dan, Bananaman and Korky the Cat in new animated strips, featuring voice overs and sound effects.

Users will also be able to play interactive games, watch videos and create their very own virtual pet.

David Bain, the comic's head of digital development said: "The Dandy is alive and well, and it's going to continue as usual. It's just as of next week it's going to be available online on a regular basis, with all the famous characters and scripts and storylines and humour, as well as games, goodies and interactivity.

"It's all about fun, humour and a bit of mischief, a bit of pranking."

Ellis Watson, chief executive of DC Thompson said: "I appreciate it's almost a deliberately naive venture into the unknown for a publisher that's been cutting down trees for 75 years, squishing them flat and smearing ink all over them.

"We're not super slick, we're not Silicon Valley, but what we are is some pretty talented animators and story tellers that are really excited about seeing if we can introduce these wonderful characters to another couple of generations."

The first online issue will be free of charge, with following issues being priced at £1.49. A yearly subscription for the digital comic will be £29.99.

During its peak circulation in the 1950s, the Dandy sold two million copies each week. This figure has dropped in recent years to around 8,000.

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Singapore Airlines In Virgin Sell-Off Talks

Singapore Airlines has confirmed it is in talks to sell its 49% stake in British carrier Virgin Atlantic.

SIA did not name the interested parties, but the Reuters news agency reported that Delta Air Lines had held recent talks to buy SIA's stake.

Delta, the second-largest US airline by operating revenue, has been looking to acquire a stake in Virgin Atlantic for more than two years in an effort to expand its access to London's Heathrow airport, sources said.

Previous talks broke down over price and other issues, and there is no guarantee that the recent discussions would result in a pact, Reuters quoted the sources as saying.

Delta wants to expand at Heathrow, which operates at close to full capacity

The European Union requires that EU carriers be under European control, meaning Delta would need to involve an EU airline if it sought majority control of Virgin.

Delta has been considering ways to partner with Air France-KLM, which could take an additional stake in Virgin and allow the carriers to acquire majority ownership. Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson owns 51% of the airline.

Delta has made clear that it would like to expand at Heathrow, a lucrative airport for prized corporate passengers where landing slots are generally hard to acquire.

Virgin is the second-largest carrier at Heathrow after British Airways.

Branson, who set up Virgin Atlantic in 1984, has been weighing the airline's future for some time and two years ago appointed Deutsche Bank to examine offers.

"We are always talking to many airlines on a number of different matters but we never comment on the details of these discussions," a Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said. Delta declined to comment.

Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, is operating at close to full capacity after the Government blocked its expansion in 2010.

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News International Chief Executive Steps Down

News International's chief executive Tom Mockridge is to quit his role at the end of the month, News Corporation has announced.

Mr Mockridge, who has been in the position since July last year, is leaving the company to "pursue new opportunities".

News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch said Mr Mockridge's decision to step down was "entirely his own".

He said: "For nearly 22 years, it has been my pleasure to have Tom Mockridge as a colleague.

"Whether it was his early days with our newspaper group in Australia, his incredible work building Sky Italia, or his steadfast leadership of News International, Tom has always been a skilled executive and a trusted friend.

"His decision to step down is absolutely and entirely his own. I am sorry to see him leave us but I know he will be a great success wherever he goes."

Mr Mockridge took over leadership of News International, the publishing arm of News Corporation, from Rebekah Brooks at the height of the phone-hacking scandal.

Rupert Murdoch said Mr Mockridge's decision to quit was 'entirely his own'

The ex-newspaper journalist joined News Ltd in Australia in 1991, where he worked with James Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation, at Star TV, before moving to his native country of New Zealand, where he oversaw the company's newspaper and TV operations.

After launching Sky Italia he became chief executive of European Television and served on the boards of BSkyB and Sky Deutschland, and is chair of Fox Turkey.

Last week, Mr Mockridge backed calls for a "tough" new press watchdog but warned that state-backed regulation would put too much power in the hands of politicians.

He said: "As a company we are keen to play our full part, with others in our industry, in creating a new body that commands the confidence of the public.

"We believe that this can be achieved without statutory regulation - and welcome the Prime Minister's rejection of that proposal.

"We accept that a new system should be independent, have a standards code, a means of resolving disputes, the power to demand prominent apologies and the ability to levy heavy fines."

Mr Mockridge said he was "genuinely shocked" about the allegations of phone hacking at the company.

But he insisted The Sun would not be shut down like its now defunct Sunday sister paper, The News Of The World, if more allegations emerged.

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Millions Of Households 'Feel Squeezed'

More than 10 million households are feeling financially squeezed and almost one in 10 have defaulted on a loan, bill or housing costs, a consumer group has said.

Releasing its findings ahead of Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement this week, Which? urged the Government to ensure spiralling energy and food costs are kept under control.

The group's "squeezometer" found almost one in four people are feeling financially squeezed, equating to 10.2 million households.

Researchers found 9% of households have defaulted on a loan, bill or housing costs.

Some 6% of households have gone into an unauthorised overdraft or used a payday loan to tide themselves over.

Researchers highlighted consumers' top worries as the price of fuel, energy and food.

A string of energy firms have recently announced bill hikes, putting further pressure on families this winter.

Food costs are also on the increase, and last week the Office of Fair Trading said eight  supermarkets have agreed to a set of principles following concerns over special offers and promotions for food and drink.

The supermarkets have agreed not to artificially inflate prices to make a later "discount" look more attractive.

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: "With 10 million households feeling the squeeze and consumer confidence remaining low, the government has a job on its hands to convince people that everything possible is being done to keep unavoidable costs like energy and food bills under control.

"We're looking for further progress in reforming the energy market, an end to misleading food price promotions, and more competition in banking to take some of the pressure off hard-pressed consumers."

The research asked 2,100 UK adults in October if they had experienced a range of financial difficulties in the previous month.

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Making Sense Of Britain's Lopsided Recovery

One of the most common observations you encounter here in London, where Sky News is based, is that despite all the headlines about recession - about the fact that this has been the worst slump in modern British history - it often doesn't feel as if there has been a recession at all.

And it turns out that this is quite right - London and the South East never experienced a double-dip recession at all. And parts of London - particularly the east end of inner London - didn't even see a fall in their economic output in nominal terms during the deepest years of recession, in 2008/09, according to analysis of official statistics by Sky News.

Meanwhile, other parts of the country have seen the sharpest and deepest collapse in recent economic history. The double-dip recession was largely experienced by Northern Ireland and the North East of Britain, according to analysis from Capital Economics.

The difference in economic experience between London and other parts of the UK (it's not even necessarily just a North-South divide as parts of the South are also suffering) is greater than ever before on modern record. And the gap has widened more here in the UK than in any other major economy in recent decades.

With both the Labour and Conservative leaders trying to claim the mantle of being the "one nation" party, it's clear that in economic terms, Britain is anything but.

We have been travelling to postcodes all around the UK to see how the experience of the recession, and the fledgling recovery, has varied throughout. We were disturbed by much of what we saw - families facing more hardship than ever before, while others in London are oblivious. Some households stuck deep in negative equity while others reap the benefits of a property boom.

We have produced a series of television and web pieces about the divergence in experiences depending on the postcode in which you live; we're calling it 'The Lopsided Recovery'.

The first of those pieces concerns the overall growth picture. The official GDP figures show that Britain faced a very sharp recession in 2009, then recovered in 2010 and early 2011, only to face a double dip in 2012. You can see this by looking at the green line in the graph below. But this masks an enormous divergence between regions.

The North East has had a far deeper recession than the broader UK. The size of its economy is still more than 5% below its 2008 peak. Meanwhile, London's economy has more than regained its pre-crisis peak. It never even saw a recession in 2012.

The green line shows the double-dip recession

And if you look in nominal terms (in other words, before you adjust for inflation), East London expanded in 2008 and 2009. It was the only part of the UK to avoid a nominal-terms contraction in that year - aside from Aberdeen, home to the North Sea oil industry, which also grew throughout.

These kinds of divergences in experience are not unusual in an economy - there are always regional disparities in all countries as it's impossible for everyone to be growing at precisely the same speed all the time. But there is evidence that the gulf in experience is greater in the UK than elsewhere.

According to official EU figures, the disparity in real incomes between regions in the UK is greater than in any other European country.

Eurostat said the disparity is greater in Britain than other EU nations

An economic paper produced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills a couple of years ago found that while the regions of Britain converged economically more than other major countries between 1950 and 1985, between 1995 and 2007 they have diverged more than in other nations.

The worrying trend for the UK is that such disparities have only widened in the recent recession. This looks stark enough on paper - it is even more striking in person.

In Newry, Northern Ireland, where the economy is also more then 5% below the pre-crisis peak, Damien Quinn of one of the neighbourhood community associations, talks of a sharp rise in suicides. Worn out by years of trying and failing to get work, young men (it is almost always young men) are killing themselves to escape the alternative: permanent unemployment, drug dependence and poverty. The latest funeral was just the week before he spoke to us.

Convergence has been reversed in recent years

In Hartlepool, Angie Wilcox of the Owton Manor Residents Association, sees a growing number of people coming through her doors for cheap food and help as they battle unemployment. She fears that welfare reforms will only make locals more desperate.

Meanwhile, in East London's Old Street, the area nicknamed 'Silicon Roundabout', Julia Fowler, who runs tech fashion start-up Editd, says she has barely seen any evidence of recession. It is harder than ever to find decent employees; she has been expanding the business since it started in the depths of recession. For those in London, the main problems are that the cost of living - particularly when it comes to housing - just keeps rising, along with the local economy.

There's nothing inherently perverse about one part of the country performing better or worse than another. After all, a nation state is a union of different economic and cultural areas. However, the longer one part of the country remains so far shy of the rest, the more it will have to be subsidised by its richer regional neighbours. This kind of regional redistribution already happens: according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, London taxpayers pay a subsidy of around 20% which goes to its regional neighbours; Northern Ireland receives a subsidy of almost 30%.

The longer such imbalances persist, the more resentment is generated on both sides: one has only to look at Greece and the rest of the Eurozone, which is an analogous situation, except in a dysfunctional currency area. And the longer certain parts of the country are excluded from economic success, their people consigned to more or less permanent unemployment, the more difficult they will find it to regain their feet at any point in the future.

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