Jeremy Hunt has room for £20bn tax cuts after borrowing halves year on year

Jeremy Hunt dropped a broad hint about tax cuts at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Photograph: Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA

Jeremy Hunt’s scope to cut taxes by about £20bn in his March budget has been boosted after the latest official figures showed UK government borrowing halving in the past year.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that higher VAT and income-tax receipts coupled with lower spending resulted in a deficit of £7.8bn in December 2023 – the lowest for the month since the pre-pandemic year of 2019.