BUDGET 2022 LIVE: Britons brace for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s grim package of tax rises and spending cuts in 11.30am Autumn Statement
Follow MailOnline’s live coverage of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s 2022 Autumn Statement and the reaction to his Budget:
Host commentator
“Motes and beams – it seems to me that the Bank of England should take the beam out of it’s own eye before it takes the mote out of the government's eye”@Jacob_Rees_Mogg responds to Governor Andrew Bailey’s comments regarding September’s mini-budget. #Peston pic.twitter.com/GqK00Lz3Fn
Harriett Baldwin, chairwoman of the Treasury select committee, said inflation was ‘the worst economic problem in this country at the moment’, adding that the UK needed to get it ‘back in its box’.
She told Sky News that it would ‘help to reassure the markets that there is someone marking the Chancellor’s homework’, and said it was ‘really welcome’ that the Chancellor’s autumn statement will come with an OBR forecast.
The Conservative MP said Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal statement in September ‘clearly was a disastrous mini-budget’ and that the autumn statement ‘would convince the financial markets that we’re back on track in terms of paying our way in the world’.
Ms Baldwin added that the committee wanted ‘to see something that will help work with the grain of what the Bank of England is trying to do to bring down inflation’.
Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), warned against the dangers of austerity.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of the Chancellor’s autumn statement, she said that tough spending cuts are ‘never easy for working people’.
Ms O’Grady said that George Osborne’s austerity plan had ‘failed’, amid expectations that Jeremy Hunt will preside over similarly painful cuts.
‘If you are starving the NHS, our education and skills system, of funding that has an impact on the economy because we need a healthy workforce, we need educated, skilled and trained workers,’ she said. ‘Now we really need big investment in green infrastructure and our public services, if we’re going to grow.’
Band D households in some of England’s most expensive boroughs could face a council tax bill hike of more than £114 under changes put forward by Rishi Sunak.
The Prime Minister is thinking about letting local authorities in England hike general council tax by 5 per cent without the need for a referendum, something that has prompted a backlash from his own MPs.
At the moment councils are required to put any plans to bump up tax by more than 2 per cent to the public in a vote, while they are also allowed to increase it by 1 per cent to fund social care.
Pat McFadden, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the UK was stuck in a ‘Conservative doom loop of emergency statements’ and the Chancellor should begin his autumn statement today by ‘taking responsibility’.
Mr McFadden said to Sky News: ‘I think he should acknowledge their responsibility for what’s happened. I don’t think he should pretend the mini-budget was just a bad dream.’
The Labour MP said the Chancellor may have to ‘overcompensate’ for the mistakes of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget and would be ‘desperate to blame global factors’ for the UK’s poor economic outlook.
In a video produced by the Treasury, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: ‘Today we are having to take some difficult decisions to restore stability, bring inflation down and balance the nation’s books.
‘So this is our plan to build a stronger economy, protect public services and make sure we look after our most vulnerable.’
An accompanying tweet read: ‘The UK is facing the effects of the global economic crisis. Difficult decisions need to be taken now to drive down inflation – the hidden tax eating into household budgets. The Cabinet has set out why we are prioritising stability, growth and public services’.
The UK is facing the effects of the global economic crisis.
Difficult decisions need to be taken now to drive down inflation – the hidden tax eating into household budgets.
The Cabinet has set out why we are prioritising stability, growth and public services ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/VOUg5AMBeh
Tax thresholds freeze
The ultimate stealth tax could rake in billions as a four-year freeze on income tax thresholds is extended to six years. The basic rate threshold will stay at £12,571 until 2027, while the starting point for 40p tax will be held at £50,271.
Council tax hike
The decade-long cap on council tax increases is expected to be lifted to 5 per cent, putting £100 on an average Band D bill.
Pensions and benefits
The Chancellor is expected to raise pensions and benefits in line with the September inflation figure of 10.1 per cent, which will see the new state pension rise by £18.70 to £203.85 a week.
Energy bills
Liz Truss’s energy price ‘guarantee’ to cap average bills at £2,500 for two years will now be raised to around £3,000 from next April. A universal one-off payment of £400 this winter will not be repeated, meaning millions will be an average of £900 worse off.
45p tax
The PM vetoed plans to restore Labour’s 50p top tax rate. But he has accepted proposals to lower the starting threshold from £150,000 to £125,000, which could drag around 250,000 high earners into the top rate for the first time.
Social care
The Chancellor is expected to delay the flagship cap on social care costs by two years, with officials predicting it will save £1 billion next year.
Spending
Mr Hunt is expected to announce public spending cuts totalling around £33 billion. Some capital projects face curbs, such as prison building.
Saving and investment
The £12,300 tax-free allowance for capital gains tax is set to be halved to around £6,000. The annual £20,000 limit for ISA savings will be frozen.
Windfall tax
The 25 per cent levy introduced on oil and gas profits this year could be increased to 35 per cent and is likely to be extended until 2028.
Motoring
Electric vehicles are set to be charged vehicle excise duty for the first time.
Britain is bracing for the Chancellor’s grim £54billion package of tax rises and spending cuts.
Jeremy Hunt will call for ‘sacrifices’ in order to bring down inflation, which jumped to a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent.
The Chancellor, who raised taxes by £32billion last month, will announce a further £24billion in tax hikes, taking the overall tax burden to a new post-war record as part of a ‘plan for stability, growth and public services’.
Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank, said he was expecting some ‘pretty bad economic news’.
Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s 2022 Budget.
Follow all the latest updates on the Autumn Statement as Britain braces for a brutal package of tax rises and spending cuts.
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