October 27, 2021
Finance minister Rishi Sunak used a stronger forecast for Britain's post-lockdown economic recovery to promise higher public spending and he vowed to protect households from the sharp rise in inflation that could approach 5% next year...
Sunak announced multi-billion-pound investments in infrastructure, education and other areas to help Prime Minister Boris Johnson meet his "levelling up" promises to voters
In a speech to parliament on Wednesday, he also moved to ease a cost-of-living squeeze for low-earners.
But the plan came with a cost: Britain's budget forecasters said the state's tax take was set to be its biggest since the 1950s, after big tax hikes announced by Sunak in March and September, while public spending was set for its largest sustained share of economic output since the late 1970s.
Sunak said he wanted to return to his Conservative Party's traditional policy of cutting taxes before the next election, due by 2024.
"My mission over the rest of this parliament is for taxes to be going down by the end, not up," Sunak said during an online discussion organised by his Conservative Party after his speech...
Sunak - who racked up Britain's biggest-ever peacetime budget deficit to combat the coronavirus - will now be able to borrow less than previously expected.
The Office for Budget Responsibility projected the deficit for the 2021/22 financial year would be 7.9% of economic output - down from its previous forecast of 10.3% and almost half the size of last year's historic shortfall...
Sunak defied expectations of a spending squeeze, saying all government departments would all get a real-term increase.