So it’s now official that Rachel Reeves’s omnishambles budget has left the UK on the brink of recession thanks to the ONS downgrading growth figures. On the back of that comes this morning’s CBI report lambasting Labour for creating a “hostile environment for aspiration, investment and growth,” with all fingers are pointed at the budget. More specifically at its punitive tax hikes…
The Treasury claimed in the Budget red book that “Inheritance Tax Reform,” including APR changes and BPR changes, will raise £520 million annually by 2029. Questions have been raised about how exactly it arrived at this figure. There is a strong suspicion in SW1 that many of the figures were lifted from far-left academic Arun Advani’s CenTax report, which was reproduced for the IFS. The Treasury has already admitted Advani has provided the basis of their IHT hike…
Now in response to an FOI the Treasury admits that it hasn’t even worked out what each tax change will raise:
“HM Treasury does not hold a disaggregated cost projection for the revenue raised from the measure announced at Autumn Budget 2024 to restrict these reliefs. This is a combined policy across the reliefs, rather than separate policies for each relief.”
Some might say it beggars belief that Reeves doesn’t have the figures required for any remotely detailed calculation of her own policy changes. Agricultural tax specialist Stuart Maggs tells Guido: “The fact that they haven’t disaggregated them doesn’t surprise me at all. Until we have an impact assessment, we’re not going see the detailed work that should have been done before this policy was instituted. It’s odd to refuse to listen to people who are extremely willing to engage in a detailed consultation to produce improved regulation on this.” Reeves has stuck her head firmly in the sand after dropping a blunt-edged tax bombshell…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”
