This budget seemed more natural for a pre-election position, not post.
It was surprising how many leaked stories were numerically incorrect, for instance:-
the personal allowance was rumoured to go from 10k to 12k but went to 11k
the upper tax threshold was rumoured to go from 41k to 50k but went to 43k
I'm not sure I understand the defence statement as an increase as we were spending 2% of GDP anyway!
Mortgage tax relief for buy to let landlords restricted to basic rate is a good idea, but we still need more houses.
I was also surprised that Public sector pay rises will be frozen at 1% for four years, if all goes well with growth over that time, then private sector pay will rocket ahead and it seems a bit mean to restrict public service pay so much, especially when the politicians are going to get 10%.
The rabbit in the hat at the end seemed to be introduced to damp the fire of their opponents rather than be effective, will it be possible to police all the employers who will refuse to keep up with the rate?
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