The Institute for Fiscal Studies has issued a damning report warning that workers could face a £10 billion stealth raid on income tax this month after Reeves “engineered a trap for herself” by leaving dangerously little room to meet her fiscal targets. Options include a freeze on income tax thresholds for another two years or a return to austerity. Just yesterday an ASI survey revealed three-quarters of firms blamed tax hikes for low growth…
The Treasury has been briefing that welfare cuts and civil service reforms will be enough to satisfy the OBR after Reeves’ £9.9 billion ‘fiscal headroom’ was wiped out. Though a new report from the Resolution Foundation shows that path is far from smooth, suggesting that freezing health-related benefits would only save a paltry £1 billion a year by 2029. A drop in the ocean…
Meanwhile, fresh figures from the ONS reveal that a staggering 67% of businesses with 10 or more employees are bracing for rising staffing costs over the next three months due to Reeves’ NICs hike – a sharp 26-point jump from November 2024. Nearly half of small businesses are planning to raise their prices, and 26% are eyeing staff cuts. No wonder the City have started dubbing Reeves the ‘Chancer of the Exchequer’…
Starmer said to Robert Peston this afternoon:
“I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy businesses bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world.”