Jeremy Hunt has warned difficult times are still to come as the country has entered a new era of high taxes.
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) director Paul Johnson said the country is in for “a long, hard, unpleasant journey” with the tax burden set to stay at the highest level in the country’s history.
“I would be most surprised if the tax burden gets back down to its long-term pre-Covid average at any time in the coming decades. Higher taxes look to be here to stay,” he said in an analysis of the chancellor’s statement.
He added those on “middling sorts of incomes” will feel the biggest hit to their living standards, saying: “Their wages are falling and their taxes are rising. Middle England is set for a shock.
“The truth is we just got a lot poorer. We are in for a long, hard, unpleasant journey; a journey that has been made more arduous than it might have been by a series of economic own-goals.
