The government’s tax-cutting pledges continue to pile up. We already knew Friday’s big reveal would bring a cut in national insurance contributions and a scrapping of the planned hike in corporation tax. Now, it is reported, a giveaway on stamp duty on house purchases is on the cards.
The coy phrase “fiscal event” doesn’t cover it. This is a full-blown budget in all but name. And, critically, it is being launched against the backdrop of a blank-cheque pledge to freeze household energy bills for two years, plus a parallel promise to support companies, charities and public sector organisations for six months – measures that, together, could conceivably add £150bn to public borrowing over the next two years.
