When Jeremy Hunt delivered his first Autumn Statement as chancellor on 17 November – seeking to steady the ship in the wake of the market turmoil unleashed by Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s heavy-borrowing, tax-slashing mini-Budget – he reduced the threshold at which people begin to pay the 45p top rate of income tax from £150,000 to £125,140.
Intended to boost Treasury coffers with an injection of a further £420m annually at a time when the British economy is in recovery mode, the decision meant pulling another 232,000 people into the country’s highest tax band.
