Biggest tax cuts in 30 years
Daily Mail says Liz Truss is rolling the dice on her premiership today by unveiling the biggest package of tax cuts in three decades in a bid to end the UK’s ‘cycle of stagnation’.
The PM and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will present the ’emergency Budget’ to the Cabinet this morning, before announcing a slew of dramatic measures designed to boost growth in the Commons.
In an intervention the scale of which rivals the Covid response, Mr Kwarteng is set to reverse the national insurance hike, as well as scrapping a huge planned increase in corporation tax and limits on City bonuses.
Dozens of low-tax and low-regulation ‘Investment Zones’ are being created across the country. But the shock and awe tactics are expected to go even further, with aides promising ‘rabbits’ among 30 policies.
Action to reduce stamp duty seems highly likely, while there is strong speculation that the 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax could be brought forward to next year.
The barrage is not technically a Budget, but a ‘fiscal event’ – meaning that controversially it will not be accompanied by any of the usual independent costings from the OBR.
And economists have voiced alarm at the massive borrowing that will be required to cover the hole in the government’s books. The two year freeze on energy bills for households and businesses announced earlier this month could cost more than £150billion by itself, while the tax cuts could add a further £50billion to the tab.