The British Chancellor of Finance, Jeremy Huntpresented this Wednesday in Parliament a spring budget focused on employment creationone of the problems that the country has after the Brexit, and the encouragement of companies with a strong investment in the sector. Hunt was appointed minister last October by his party to repair the disastrous economic plan presented by Liz Truss. Basically what he did in the fall was to reverse most of the former prime minister’s proposals, but he couldn’t convince the citizens that his budget then was meant to grow in the long term.
“In autumn [con el anterior presupuesto] we made the difficult decision to provide stability y calm the marketsHunt told Parliament, “but today [por ayer] we provide the second part of the plan, a budget for growth.” The Finance Minister announced that the Government will abolish the lifetime allocation limit on pensions in an attempt to encourage more workers to return to the workforce. The lifetime allowance (LTA) is the maximum amount you can get from pensions (employment or personal) during your lifetime without paying additional taxes.
This measure is aimed above all at doctors, due to the shortage of thousands of doctors in the British public health. Also offers 30 hours of free childcare for children older than nine months as long as both parents each work a minimum of 16 hours. There are also measures so that people with disabilities can access the labor market. In total, he wants to attract 1.1 million people to the job market.
Tax reduction for companies
He also announced a tax cuts for companies of more than 9,000 million pounds (10,300 million euros) which, he said, would make the United Kingdom the best country to invest in, despite the controversial increase in corporate tax from 19% to 25%. And he offered to keep the aid for gas and electricity bills for three more months until summer.
In an hour-long speech, he assured that his plan was working and that they would avoid the recession this year and that the Office of Budgetary Responsibility (OBR), which is in charge of making official forecasts, predicted that inflation would fall from the current 10.7% to 2.9% by the end of the year. Hunt said that the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, would fulfill the promise to cut inflation in half. However, the OBR still forecasts a 0.2% drop in the economy this year and still forecasts the biggest loss in household purchasing power since 1957.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Britain’s leading economic research institute, said households still faced a record high tax burden, while interest spending on government debt was still “well above” forecasts last year. one year. And he added that taxpayers with the lowest taxes would pay 500 pounds (570 euros) next tax year, while taxpayers with the highest taxes would pay an additional 1,000 pounds (1,140 euros).
Opposition criticism
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Labor leader Keir Starmer said the finance minister’s “boasting” about lower inflation was “ridiculous”. “The British can see that this is not a tax cut, they know that their tax burden is the highest in 70 years and that it is not the government that is bringing inflation down but working people, who earn less, enjoy less Starmer added. “It is their sacrifice that helps reduce inflation and they deserve better than another cheap trick from this government.”
The government budget coincided with one of the worst days of strikes for the British because the national strikes of trainee doctors from the National Health Service, who are asking for a 35% rise in salaries, and of primary and secondary teachers coincided. These were joined by workers on the London Underground, making it difficult for Londoners to get around. The question is whether this budget will be enough to make people see that the situation is changing, that the cost of living crisis is ending.
