\n<\/p>\n
United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has unveiled significant tax rises expected to raise 26.1bn pounds ($34.4bn) as she battles a downgrade in forecast economic growth.<\/p>\n
The presentation of her budget statement to parliament on Wednesday came after an unprecedented leak from the government\u2019s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which published its economic and financial outlook early on its website, essentially signalling Reeves\u2019s measures in advance.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Reeves criticised the watchdog for the embarrassing blunder, which the OBR blamed on a \u201ctechnical error\u201d, saying it went \u201clive on our website too early this morning\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is deeply disappointing and a serious error on their part,\u201d she told lawmakers.<\/p>\n Reeves faced the onerous task in the budget, her second since the Labour Party returned to power after 14 years, of restoring the UK\u2019s public finances while upholding Labour\u2019s election pledges \u2013 requirements that left limited room to manoeuvre on taxes or spending.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve made my choices \u2013 not reckless borrowing, not dangerous cuts but stability for our economy, security for the public finances and security for family finances too.\u201d<\/p>\n Reporting from London, Al Jazeera\u2019s Milena Veselinovic said that at the heart of the budget was a move to freeze the tax levels into which earners are placed, meaning as wages rise, more people fall into higher tax brackets.<\/p>\n \u201cThat will hit middle-income earners the most,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The continued freeze on the income tax brackets and national insurance thresholds will pull 780,000 people into paying basic-rate income tax for the first time by the 2029-2030 fiscal year along with 920,000 more higher-rate taxpayers and 4,000 additional-rate payers.<\/p>\n The freeze is projected to raise about 8.3bn pounds ($10.95bn) in 2029-2030 and will extend to 2030-2031.<\/p>\n Other personal tax changes include 4.7bn pounds ($6.2bn) to be raised through charging national insurance on salary-sacrificed pension contributions and 2.1bn pounds ($2.77bn) through increasing tax rates on dividends, property and savings income by 2 percentage points.<\/p>\n Taken together, the OBR now expects the tax burden to rise to 38.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030-2031, the highest level on record.<\/p>\n Other revenue-raising measures include a \u201cmansion tax\u201d on homes worth more than 2m pounds ($2.6m) that will take effect in 2028, raising an estimated 400m pounds ($527.6m).<\/p>\n A new charge of 3 pence (4 cents) per mile for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will take effect in April 2028, a measure expected to raise 1.4bn pounds ($1.85bn).<\/p>\n Reeves also announced an increase in duties on remote gambling from 21 percent to 40, which she said would raise more than 1bn pounds ($1.3bn) by 2031.<\/p>\n The fiscal tightening is playing out against a weakening economic backdrop.<\/p>\n Although the OBR raised its GDP growth forecast for 2025 from 1 percent to 1.5 percent, it downgraded medium-term growth projections with 2026 falling from 1.9 percent to 1.4 percent, 2027 from 1.8 to 1.5 and similar reductions expected through 2029.<\/p>\n Much of the downgrade stems from lower expectations for productivity growth.<\/p>\n Reeves insisted the sluggish outlook was the legacy of the previous Conservative governments as she sought to emphasise continuity with Labour\u2019s message of stability since taking office in July last year.<\/p>\n But the OBR leak overshadowed the statement and fuelled opposition criticism.<\/p>\n Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the error made Britain look like a \u201cshambolic laughing stock\u201d and said Reeves should consider resigning.<\/p>\n \u201cIf she doesn\u2019t resign for breaking her promises [on the economy], she should sure as hell go for this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Shadow chancellor Mel Stride called the premature publication of the OBR outlook an \u201cutterly outrageous\u201d release of market-sensitive material that could constitute a criminal act.<\/p>\n The budget comes at a politically precarious moment for the Labour government.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Keir Starmer is grappling with poor poll ratings and growing unease within his party as some MPs have publicly speculated about a future leadership challenge.<\/p>\n Analysts said a budget misfire could deepen the sense of crisis.<\/p>\n Reporting from London, Al Jazeera\u2019s Veselinovic said among the key criticisms of the budget was that it appeared to have been designed to appease Labour backbenchers.<\/p>\n Measures such as removing a so-called two-child benefit cap, meaning families with more children could also receive assistance, were \u201cincredibly popular with Labour party backbenchers\u201d but less so with the wider electorate, she said.<\/p>\n While the Labour government had a large majority in Parliament, she said, \u201cthey don\u2019t seem to be in charge of their party and that doesn\u2019t seem to give a lot of comfort to the markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Reeves, however, insisted Labour\u2019s plan would \u201cbeat the forecasts\u201d and set the foundations for long-term growth.<\/p>\n \u201cBrick by brick we\u2019ve been building growth in our economy,\u201d she said. \u201cBuilding roads, building homes, getting spades in the ground and cranes in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has unveiled significant tax rises expected to raise 26.1bn pounds ($34.4bn) as she battles a downgrade in forecast economic growth. The presentation of her budget statement to parliament on Wednesday came after an unprecedented leak from the government\u2019s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Freeze on income tax thresholds<\/h2>\n
\u2018Mansion tax\u2019, gambling duty hikes<\/h2>\n
Weakening growth projections<\/h2>\n
\u2018Laughing stock\u2019<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"