At last, we are finally within reach of this year’s Budget. On Wednesday, the country will know the worst, with few expecting to feel better off when the chancellor sits down. After all, she warned less than three weeks ago that “if we are to build the future of Britain together, we will all have to contribute to that effort. Each of us must do our bit”.
The best that can reasonably be hoped for is that the changes are less discouraging – for individuals, households and the country at large – than has been anticipated, even if the bottom line is short-term pain for long-term gain, and greater clarity. What has seemed an interminable run-up to Rachel Reeves’s second Budget has been marked by repeated kite-flying and mounting confusion. Tax-raising and other measures have been mooted, only to be dropped or withdrawn, the most recent and disruptive being a rise in the basic rate of income tax. If nothing else, this has illustrated the wisdom of the traditional pre-Budget purdah.
