Hammond to pump up the ‘jams’ with tax and fuel cuts

Chancellor expected to use Autumn Statement to help working families who are ‘just about managing’

PHILIP HAMMOND is expected to use his Autumn Statement next week to freeze fuel duty and cut taxes for a group officials describe as the “jams” – those just about managing to get by.

After years of targeting the “squeezed middle”, the Conservatives are now focusing on working class voters who feel left behind by globalisation as part of Theresa May’s social justice agenda.

The Chancellor is expected to use his first financial statement to focus on those just above the benefits threshold, with ministers also considering the introduction of new childcare subsidies.

It comes as Alan Milburn, the Government’s social mobility tsar, warned that families who “do the right thing” and were “workers, not shirkers” were being left behind in modern Britain.

The former Labour health secretary said that while the poorest had at least some protection, working families on low and middle incomes felt trapped, insecure and worried for their children’s future.

And he pointed to the rise of Marine Le Pen’s far-Right Front National party in France as he warned that extremist figures would fill the “vacuum” in public life if mainstream politicians did not provide credible answers for an increasingly restive population.

Mr Milburn warned that focusing on the bottom 10 per cent of society was no longer enough.

He said: “The rate of home owner- ship amongst the under-25s has halved – halved – in a decade. Housing costs are going through the roof particularly for those in the private rented sector.

“So this is a problem which is now not just a problem for the poorest, it’s a problem that affects a whole tranche of what people would call low and middle income Britain.

“And if it affects so many then it surely should be the priority for the nation.”

Sources have confirmed that Mr Hammond intends to use the Autumn Statement to address some of the concerns raised by Mr Milburn.

It is believed he will freeze fuel duty to allay concern about rising prices due to increasing levels of inflation. There is growing speculation he will cut air passenger duty to reduce the rising costs of family holidays.

Issuing a warning yesterday about the need to act, Mr Milburn said: “Across the world, political populism, of Right and Left, is on the march. Attitudes both to wealth and poverty are changing fast. So too, public attitudes towards immigration – and not necessarily for the better.

“The public mood is sour and decision-makers have been far too slow to recognise that untrammelled wealth for a few at the top, growing insecurity for many in the middle and stalled life chances for those at the bottom is no longer a viable social proposition for Britain.”

‘This is a problem … that affects a whole tranche of what people would call low and middle income Britain’