Slashed: Inflation to 2.9% Scrapped: Pension pot caps Extended: Free childcare
WHAT THE BUDGET MEANS FRO YOU: REPORTS & ANALYSIS
Jeremy Hunt unveiled falling inflation, free childcare for toddlers and a tax cut on pensions as he used his first Budget to declare his economic plan “is working”.
Saying the UK economy was “proving the doubters wrong”, the chancellor announced Britain will avoid a recession, and used a £25bn-a-year improvement in finances to set out a “growth” Budget. But Sir Keir Starmer said Britain was the “sick man of Europe once again” as he criticised Mr Hunt’s “sticking plaster” measures. The chancellor also faced accusations that his planned pension reforms were a tax cut to the wealthy, just as the overall tax burden is predicted to rise to levels not seen since the 1940s.