Jeremy Hunt’s budget today received a mixed reaction from Westminster’s wonks. Unsurprisingly, it was most welcomed by centre-right voices with the free-marketeers and lefties alike less enthusiastic. As always, Guido has the lowdown on their reaction.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance was hardly full of praise to a budget “full of problems” . Despite criticising the government for rises to corporation tax and tobacco duty, they welcomed reforms to medicine approval and the abolition of the lifetime allowance for pensions. Chief Executive, John O’Connell said:

“Despite looking good on the surface, under the bonnet this Budget is full of problems for taxpayers. The chancellor has identified a number of structural weaknesses in the UK economy and has rightly focused on fixing them. But yet more spending increases in coming years will further frustrate households, whose rising tax bills are contributing to the biggest drop in living standards since records began. While forecasts are heading in the right direction, taxpayers still face funding the cost of government crisis for years to come.”

Hunt’s policy of full capital expensing gave the Adam Smith Institute cause to celebrate a win in their campaign to abolish the factory tax. Beyond this, they were similarly lukewarm to the budget – giving it an overall score of 6.5/10. They summarised their reaction on twitter:

“The Chancellor seemingly has the right ideas about what is causing our economic ailments… but came to the Budget with the wrong conclusions about how to fix them.”

The Institute of Economic Affairs agreed with the ASI’s assessment that childcare reforms were still “too demand-inducing”. Their Editorial and Research Fellow, Len Shackleton said the policy would “primarily benefit middle class families” and was unlikely to be effective. On the budget more generally, Director Mark Littlewood was similarly critical:

“The budget lacks ambition but takes some welcome steps. Introducing full expensing for plants, machinery and equipment will encourage business investment and boost productivity. Abolishing the lifetime pension allowance will encourage more people to work. Recognising foreign medicine approvals could save lives by providing earlier access to treatments… For a government claiming to be laser-focused on reaping the rewards of Brexit and promoting economic growth, this is a profound misstep.”

In a break from the free-marketeers, centre-right wonks were more receptive, with the Centre for Social Justice leading the charge. Their Chief Executive, Andy Cook, heaped praise on the “back to work budget”:

“Universal Support – the long forgotten “sister” to Universal Credit – was specifically designed to help those in this group who want to work get back into the workforce. The CSJ has long campaigned for the roll out of Universal Support, and we are delighted that the Chancellor has now taken decisive action to begin that process. Delivered properly, Universal Support will help hundreds of thousands more people reap the financial, social and health benefits of work… With CSJ calls to boost childcare support in Universal Credit also adopted, the Chancellor’s ‘back to work Budget’ certainly packs a punch.”

Policy Exchange joined in offering a ringing endorsement for the “serious budget to tackle serious challenges”. Connor McDonald added:

The Chancellor was right to deal with two big problems facing the UK: economic inactivity and business investment. The budget measures on labour market participation represent one of the largest packages of its kind in recent history. The proposals to expand childcare and tackle supply-side reform in the sector are potentially revolutionary, and we are glad that Policy Exchange proposals, such as incentivising childminder agencies and bringing ratios in line with Scotland are being implemented… While more could be done on taxes – the tax burden is still too high and rising in April – this budget identifies long-term problems for the UK economy and delivers a comprehensive plan to address them. A serious budget to tackle serious challenges.”

Onward has similarly kind words for Hunt – and in particular his childcare policy. Seb Payne responded that:

“This was a Budget to bring back trust – reassuring and optimistic, providing support now and fostering growth in the future. It balanced fiscal security and creating better conditions for prosperity. A solid start, but there’s still an electoral and delivery mountain to climb…”

Unsurprisingly, the Resolution Foundation took the opposite view. Torsten Bell summarised his response as follows:

“So, in summary; bad, but not as bad as previously feared… policy announcements will be more successful at boosting employment (make a real difference to women) than investment (today will make no real difference). The back to work package is basically: The carrots: big spending/tax bungs to keep better off parents/doctors in work; The sticks: increase conditionality on poorer parents. Anyone saying this would be a boring Budget was very wrong – big policy changes, especially on childcare and disability benefits”.

The Resolution Foundation’s less establishment-friendly comrades at the New Economics Foundation weren’t happy – Guido doubts Jeremy Hunt will be losing sleep. They provided running commentary on Twitter:

“Increasing the pension lifetime allowance is a massive giveaway to the wealthiest people in society. It won’t encourage people back into work and it won’t help most of us struggling to get by…The expansion of 30 hours free childcare is a big step forward – but it’s not enough to fix our broken childcare system. It’s not enough for providers or parents. We need free, universal, high-quality childcare. The most notable thing about this budget is what was missing. There was room for tax breaks for the rich but no mention of a pay rise for hard working nurses, teachers and other public sector workers.”

Despite the 5p cut to fuel duty being maintained, the budget was also a non-starter for the Alliance of British Drivers. Chief Executive, Brian Gregory, said:

“The Chancellor could have helped ease the cost-of-living crisis by removing the outrageous burden of paying tax twice at the fuel pumps – in the form of VAT and fuel duty… Instead, the Government will continue to spend hardworking taxpayers’ money to support electric vehicle subsidies and grants for electric vehicle infrastructure which will benefit the wealthy… This was a disappointing Budget from a disappointing Government.”

Driving the agenda…

Yet more Tufton Street reshuffling this week as the Centre for Social Justice appoints three new directorships. Their Homelessness lead Joe Shalam, and former DExEU SpAd Gavin Rice are both being appointed Directors of Policy; Matthew Patten has been appointed as the CSJ’s political and comms director, having previously led the Mayor’s Fund for London as CEO and a short tenure as a Brexit Party MEP.

In yet more ASI news, Guido understands their current head of government affairs John Macdonald is being promoted to director of strategy, and Morgan Schondelmeier to director of operations from Monday, following the departure of Matt Kilcoyne. They’re also hiring a new head of comms. Get applying now…