The reactions are in from Westminster’s wonks on Healey’s Breathing Space Budget. They’re struggling to breathe…
Onward’s director Simon Clarke said: “Britain is drowning in three trillion pounds of debt, while the Chancellor shuffled costs from one pocket to the next… Scrapping standing charges on gas bills only to load the cost onto gas usage is not relief. Raising the minimum and living wage in a way that prices young people out of work is not relief.” Not relief…
The Adam Smith Institute’s head of communications Silvia Andreoletti said: “Instead of cutting taxes and spending, the Chancellor delivered a hodgepodge of expensive measures without a clear direction… Support on energy costs and small business rate relief sound good from the dispatch box, but they will likely be wiped out by rising inflation and sluggish demand.” The OBR says the whole package cuts inflation by just 0.1 points…
TaxPayers’ Alliance CEO John O’Connell added: “The chancellor has driven the tax burden to another record high to pay for gimmicks and giveaways while sidestepping the ticking fiscal time bomb of runaway benefits spending. Deciding to target savings and productive investment means even more punishment for people doing the right thing…” Savers now face up to 49%…
The Institute of Economic Affairs’ chief economist Dr Valentin Boboc said: “Today’s Budget takes one step forward and two steps back… Higher taxes on banks risk discouraging investment, while another minimum wage increase will make hiring more expensive when youth unemployment is already above 15%.” Two steps back, then a spending review…
The Prosperity Institute’s economist Emmanuel Igwe branded it “a coward’s charter”, saying: “John Healey’s first Budget fails the most important test: will it bring public spending and borrowing under control? The answer is an emphatic no… If we froze the National Living Wage for five years, we could create 600,000 jobs for those aged 16-24…” Healey chose to tinker…
Centre for Policy Studies director Liam Halligan said: “John Healey’s Budget statement is a dangerous continuation of Labour’s tax-and-spend fantasy, pushing Britain closer to a full-blown fiscal reckoning… Healey has kicked the can down the road, relying on ‘innovative financing’ and delaying core obligations… by eroding the fiscal ‘headroom’ buffer down to £15 billion amidst global energy shocks, this Budget risks a bond market meltdown.” Down from £23.6 billion in March…
Joe Shalam, Policy Director at the Centre for Social Justice, said:
“That was the fudge-it Budget. Faced with a welfare crisis, a million young people out of work or training and communities trapped in poverty, the government has, for now, handed out a few sweeteners and fudged the hard choices until the next review.”
The Growth Foundation’s lead Growth Budget author Douglas McWilliams said:
“The good thing about Chancellor Healey’s package is that at first sight it is the first Budget under this government to cause only a slight deterioration in the outlook… But the Budget misses many opportunities to improve the outlook: the ‘Laffer’ taxes that eventually cost more than they raise have not been reduced or abolished; housing and planning remain a mess and additional spending on public house-building will do little when the private sector cannot make a profit from building houses; Britain’s energy costs for business are still £8 billion higher than the average for competitors – and while £400 million of relief is welcome, it will make little difference; employment rights law is still stopping hiring; welfare has still not been reformed; and defence spending is so low that the country’s security is at risk.”
Policy Exchange’s Senior Research Fellow William Nixon said:
“The Chancellor’s ‘do no harm’ Budget fails to address the UK’s underlying economic and fiscal problems. Key and necessary reforms on energy, housing, tax and welfare spending have been kicked down the road.”
Labour’s favourite think tank, the Resolution Foundation, wasn’t having it either. Chief executive Ruth Curtice said the £100 per household energy payment showed Healey had “spread the jam thin” while bills are rising by four times that figure. Wonder why..
Real income growth is projected to be negative next year. That sound you can hear is air escaping the balloon…
Robert Jenrick told a rally on Monday:
“They say Chancellors are either undertakers or bookies. This one is an ostrich – and when the Chancellor buries his head in the sand, the rest of us, we’re left staring at his you know what.”