Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said:
“Today’s Budget's was billed as representing an end to austerity -
and the Chancellor certainly had plenty of unexpected goodies in
his sack. “It is significant that the Chancellor recognised
that the cost of living is now a tax issue. Over the summer the CPS
published polling and made the case strongly that the number one
issue for voters was help with the cost of living. The freeze on
fuel duty and the raising of...Request free trial
Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies,
said:
“Today’s Budget's was billed as representing an end to
austerity - and the Chancellor certainly had plenty of unexpected
goodies in his sack.
“It is significant that the Chancellor recognised that the cost of
living is now a tax issue. Over the summer the CPS published
polling and made the case strongly that the number one issue for
voters was help with the cost of living. The freeze on fuel duty
and the raising of the personal allowance – a policy originally
proposed by the CPS in 2001 – will also help with this. And we
welcome the additional support via Universal Credit for those
moving from welfare into work - a topic we will be publishing more
on shortly.
“However, it is clear that this was ultimately not a Brexit Budget,
but an NHS Budget. The overwhelming majority of the extra spending
proposed will go towards meeting the pledge to increase health
spending. That the Chancellor has managed to do this without
increasing personal taxes is impressive, although it comes at the
price of ensuring that we will remain in deficit rather than
surplus - admittedly a far, far more manageable one than under
Labour's plans for the economy."
