In Rachel Reeves’ first budget this week, the first-ever female chancellor saw £40bn of sweeping tax rises delivered to plug funding gaps in the NHS and schools.
While many of us have something to be miserable about when it comes to our money, there were also some major bullets dodged, as Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Helen Crane discuss in this week’s podcast.
Among the losers were landlords, investors and those who had put wealth into their pensions, as stamp duty, capital gains tax and inheritance tax all came under the spotlight.
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The attack on the middle class was perhaps to be expected from a government that has told us that those with the broadest shoulders must bear a greater burden.
But apart from an increase in the minimum wage and a penny a pint, has the Budget given enough support to ‘working people’ – and will changes to employers’ national insurance contributions still hit them indirectly in the pockets?
With growth the buzzword of the Labor election campaign, has Reeves missed an opportunity to get people excited about British industry and entrepreneurship?
We also look at what wasn’t announced in the speech, including a less than fond farewell to the short-lived British Isa, and a change to child benefit that could have helped single parents get thrown on the scrap heap.
Changes: Rachel Reeves introduced £40bn of sweeping tax increases in this week’s Budget