HPC Executive Director Luke Hildyard’s comments on Rachel Reeves’ first budget as Chancellor of the Exchequer
The increased resourcing of public services was very welcome after an extended period of underfunding. Considering the state of courts, prisons, local government services the increases aren’t dramatic, and they mostly come from the increase to employer’s national insurance.
Increases to taxes on capital gains and private equity focused on the very wealthiest in society were less ambitious than many people were expecting. Whether warnings that those affected by these measures would have been able to escape them were credible remains open to question. But if the super rich really are so impervious to efforts by democratically elected governments to tax them a little bit more to support vital public services that benefit everyone, that is incredibly troubling and something that requires urgent action, at international level if necessary.