Get ready for Austerity 2.0. The message coming out of 10 and 11 Downing Street is that a belt-tightening autumn statement will include both tax increases and public spending cuts. Ahead of Jeremy Hunt’s announcement on 17 November , the pitch is being carefully rolled.
The Treasury plans have a strong sense of deja vu about them, since the first economic act of David Cameron’s coalition government in 2010 was a £40bn package of measures designed to balance the books. Back then, the global financial crisis had punched a hole in the state’s finances; in 2022 the damage has been caused by the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
