#public-finances

#public-finances

For the first six months of the financial year, total borrowing now stands close to £99.8bn, 13.1% higher than at the same point last year and on course to overshoot the OBR's March forecast. The rise reflects a toxic mix of high debt interest payments, still-inflated public sector wage costs, and weak tax receipts from income, property, and corporate profits. Meanwhile, sluggish GDP growth is keeping revenue subdued, even as spending on health, education, and local services remains under pressure.

Britain's leading tax and spending experts have urged Rachel Reeves to consider announcing billions of pounds in welfare cuts in next month's budget to help placate jittery financial markets. After the chancellor gave her strongest hint yet that spending cuts were under consideration, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) called on Reeves to take bold action to plug a potential 22bn shortfall in the government finances.

At the moment the chancellor gives away more than 50bn in tax relief for pension saving, most of which goes to wealthier boomers and better-paid gen Xers who do not need the money and would save anyway if state support was more limited. A remodelling of pension subsidies cutting the 40p higher rate to a flat rate of 25p for all savers could claw back 10bn to 20bn in extra income tax and national insurance payments, depending on how the new regime is constructed.

A huge proportion of the tax gap is attributable to small businesses (60% or approx. £. Sole traders do not have to register with Companies House and it is likely that plenty fly under HMRC's radar. Even small businesses which are companies, although they need to be registered at Companies House, have significant exemptions in the level of detail that they are required to submit in terms of their accounts.

Rachel Reeves could consider cutting the amount savers are allowed to withdraw in a lump sum from their pension pots as she seeks to plug a multi-billion-pound hole in the public finances. The chancellor will look at proposals from civil servants that could raise around 2bn by lowering the limit on how much people are allowed to take out of their pension without paying tax. Currently, pensioners can take out a quarter of their pension pot tax-free, with a cap of 268,000.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves stated that the fifth interest rate cut since last year's election is welcome news, assisting in lowering costs for mortgages and loans.

Niesr recommends a moderate but sustained increase in taxes, including reforming the council tax system, to address a 41.2bn shortfall in government finances.

Sir Keir Starmer has opened the door for the Labour government to unleash both wealth taxes and an extension of stealth taxes in a bid to balance the books following his welfare U-turns.

The cost of the state pension triple lock is forecast to be three times higher by the end of the decade than its original estimate, according to the government's official forecaster.

The National Audit Office reported that three quarters of asylum accommodation funding is now directed towards hotels, which are more expensive than community housing.