Budget statement latest: Hunt heads to Westminster ahead of Budget speech

Budget October 27, 2021

Prime Minister: Boris Johnson; Chancellor: Rishi Sunak.

Rishi Sunak delivered a ‘Tax, Spend and Save’ budget, his third and last as British Chancellor. He raised taxes to the highest level in 70 years on forecasts that gave him an annual profit of £35billion and pledged to pump more money into public services as they recover from the Covid-19 pandemic . He increased department budgets by 3 percent a year in real terms over the next three years.

He handed in his resignation as chancellor in July 2022, hastening the ouster of Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Budget March 3, 2021

Prime Minister: Boris Johnson; Chancellor: Rishi Sunak.

Spending the budget that was postponed from autumn 2020 because of the Covid 19 pandemic and taxing it later broke many records and illustrated the extent of emergency government aid during the crisis. At an estimated £355bn, UK government borrowing forecast for 2020-21 should be the highest since World War II. Mid-decade tax hikes for businesses and individuals promised to be the largest since 1993. The increases would take Britain’s tax burden to the highest level – 35 per cent of gross domestic product in 2025-26 – since Roy Jenkins was Labor Chancellor in the late 1960s.

Rishi Sunak provided £65bn over the next two years to support jobs and investment, followed by £25bn a year for corporate tax and personal income tax increases through the middle of the decade. Sunak was the first Chancellor to raise corporate tax rates since Labour’s Denis Healey in 1974.

Budget March 11, 2020

Prime Minister Boris Johnson; Chancellor: Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak ended a decade of austerity with an increase in public spending and a £12billion emergency tax stimulus to counter the shock of the coronavirus outbreak. Almost two weeks later, the UK government imposed its first nationwide lockdown. Sunak, barely a month in the post of chancellor after his predecessor Sajid Javid abruptly resigned, vowed to take the necessary measures to cushion the impact of the “temporary disruption” of Covid-19. He vowed to put money into the NHS and said he would have the “millions or billions” needed to fight the disease. Public sector net investment was expected to rise to 3% from nearly 2% of national income, while the government would reimburse businesses for some of the cost of paying statutory sick pay to those who self-isolate.

A planned budget for fall 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic.

Budget October 29, 2018

Prime Minister: Theresa May; Chancellor: Philip Hammond

Philip Hammond declared that the UK’s austerity era was “finally coming to an end” as he committed the biggest give away budget since 2010. However, he warned that a no-deal Brexit could cast a shadow over cash-strapped public services. Raised government borrowing and growth forecasts enabled the Chancellor to fund an annual increase in NHS spending that would rise to £27.6bn by 2023/24. The NHS has increased by 3.4 per cent in real terms every year for five years, but all other public services – including schools, police, social services, prisons and housing – would see inflation-driven increases at best after eight years of cuts.

Budget 22 November 2017

Prime Minister: Theresa May; Chancellor: Philip Hammond

Philip Hammond pledged to fix Britain’s housing market and his basic policy plan was a £44bn package of investments, loans and guarantees to boost new home construction. Weak productivity growth led to a cut in five-year estimates for UK economic growth, giving the chancellor less leeway to absorb any shock from the exit from the EU. The forecast indicated that households faced 17 years of wage stagnation.