Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CAN HE FIX IT? .. NO HE CAN’T
Hammond faces No Hope Budget fury Families set for nightmare squeeze
FAMILIES face the worst squeeze since World War Two after Philip Hammond’s “No Hope Budget”.
Experts say we are set for the longest consecutive fall in living standards in nearly 70 years.
The Resolution Foundation think tank believes average earnings will be £1,000 lower by 2022 – making 17 years of low pay since the crash of 2008.
The poorest third of households are set for an average loss of £715 a year by the end of the parliament while the richest third gain an average of £185.
The think tank also said productivity growth is set to fall to 0.1% by the end of 2017, marking this as the worst decade for growth since 1812.
And it slammed the £3billion abolition of stamp duty for firsttime buyers, saying the £160,000 subsidy was enough to simply buy a home in many areas.
A second shocking analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies agreed wages would be below 2008 levels in 2022.
It added that the Budget impact on households would be “grim” and “truly astonishing”.
Director Paul Johnson also warned the economy could lose £65billion after the Office for Budget Responsibility downgraded
its 2017 growth forecast from 2% to 1.5%.
He also debunked Hammond’s boast of £44billion investment in housing, pointing out that in fact it is actually just “£1.5billion a year of actual public spending”.
It also emerged last night that 23,000 social homes were sold off under the Conservatives in the last year.
Shadow Chancellor John Mcdonnell said Tory mismanagement would “hit all of society”. But he came under fire for refusing to say how much it would cost to service the borrowing needed for Labour’s infrastructure plans.
Quizzed repeatedly on Radio Four’s Today programme he said: “The type of journalism where... someone asks you a question on a particular figure, to be honest, is a trite form of journalism. That’s why we have ipads and that’s why I have advisers.”
A POLL shows 80% of children think they would make a better PM than Theresa May.
IT has not taken long for the shine to wear off Philip Hammond’s Budget.
Like a dodgy car salesman, the Chancellor tried to claim the economy was motoring and Britain had a bright future. Yesterday, the experts opened the bonnet to look at the real of state of the nation’s finances.
It is not just growth which is stuttering. Millions of families face the toughest squeeze on incomes for 60 years.
Average annual pay is forecast to be £1,030 lower in 2022, while productivity levels are at their lowest since Napoleonic times.
The least well-off will be hit hardest, with the poorest third of households set to be an average of £715 a year worse off by end of this parliament. To add insult to injury, the richest third of households will be £185 better off.
None of this was addressed by Mr Hammond on Wednesday. There was nothing for the “just about managing” Theresa May had pledged to help, nothing to boost incomes and nothing to turn the economy around.
The Chancellor has run out of ideas and the Tories deserve to be run out of town.