People across the UK will pay more in taxes and suffer plunging living standards as recession grips the country and household bills soar.
The chancellor admitted the UK is now officially in a recession, as he unveiled his autumn Budget, announcing a host of “difficult decisions”, including a 5% rise in council tax.
Treasury watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast the economy will shrink by 2%, living standards will crash and more than half a million people will lose their jobs as inflation erodes real-terms wages over 2023-24.
In his plan to weather the economic “storm” by making the recession shallower, Jeremy Hunt committed to increase the state pension and benefits in line with September’s 10.1% inflation figure.
But the threshold for paying the top rate of income tax will drop from £150,000 to £125,000.
Mr Hunt also announced energy bills would rise to £3,000 a year from April.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “This government has forced our economy into a doom loop where low growth leads to higher taxes, lower investments and squeezed wages, with the running down of public services - all of which hits economic growth again.”
