The Chancellor George Osborne delivered the first Conservative Budget in almost 20 years this week and there were some interesting announcements which will have employment implications.

Here is a summary of the main points:

• A new National Living Wage will be introduced for all workers over the age of 25. This will replace the current National Minimum Wage, and it will be at the rate of £7.20 an hour from April 2016, rising to £9 an hour by 2020. It is estimated that this will give 2.5 million people an £5,000 wage rise over 5 years. However small businesses have expressed concern about this rise and the impact that it will have on their staffing costs. The Chancellor has tried to assure them that the cut in corporation tax (discussed below) will support them in this.

• The personal allowance at which people start paying tax will rise to £11,000 in 2016, rising further to £12,500 by 2020. This means that people working 30 hours a week on the minimum wage will not pay income tax. Additionally, at the other end of the salary scale, the point at which people start paying the 40p income tax rate will rise from £42,385 to £43,000 in 2016.

• Although not directly an employment specific point, but one which will impact a number of employees, is the fact that tax credits and Universal Credits will be restricted to 2 children, affecting those born after April 2017. Additionally, the income tax threshold for tax credits is to be reduced from £6,420 to £3,850.

• In the area of pensions, a Green Paper will be published on proposals for a 'radical change' to the pension saving system, and the amount people can contribute to their pension tax-free will be reduced for individuals with incomes over £150,000.

• The Chancellor also predicted that there would be one million extra jobs created by 2020.

• To balance out the introduction of the National Living Wage, corporation tax will be cut to 19% in 2017 and 18% in 2020.

• The permanent non-dom status will be abolished from April 2017 meaning that anyone who has lived in the UK for 15 of the past 20 years will pay the same level of tax as other UK citizens. The Chancellor said changes to the non-dom rules would bring in an additional £1.5bn in annual tax revenue.