Prime minister: Boris Johnson; Chancellor: Rishi Sunak.
Rishi Sunak delivered a “tax, spend and save” Budget, his third and final as UK chancellor. He raised taxes to their highest level in 70 years on the back of forecasts that gave him a £35bn annual windfall and promised to pump more money into public services as they recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic. He increased departmental budgets 3 per cent a year in real terms over the next three years.
He tendered his resignation as chancellor in July 2022, precipitating Boris Johnson’s fall as prime minister.
Prime minister: Boris Johnson; Chancellor: Rishi Sunak.
The spend now, tax later Budget, postponed from autumn 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, broke many records and highlighted the scale of emergency state support during the crisis. At an estimated £355bn, the level of UK government borrowing forecast for 2020-21 was due to be the highest since the second world war. Tax rises for businesses and individuals for the middle of the decade promised to be the largest since 1993. The increases would raise the UK tax burden to its highest level — 35 per cent of gross domestic product in 2025-26 — since Roy Jenkins was the Labour party chancellor in the late 1960s.
Rishi Sunak set aside £65bn over the next two years to support jobs and investment, followed by £25bn a year of corporate tax and income tax rises by the middle of the decade. Sunak became the first chancellor to raise corporation tax rates since Labour’s Denis Healey in 1974.
Prime minister Boris Johnson; Chancellor: Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak ended a decade of austerity with an increase in public spending and a £12bn emergency fiscal stimulus to counter the shock of the coronavirus outbreak. Nearly a fortnight later, the UK government imposed its first nationwide lockdown. Sunak, barely a month in the job of chancellor after his predecessor Sajid Javid quit abruptly, pledged to take the necessary action to cushion the impact of the “temporary disruption” from Covid-19. He promised to pour money into the NHS, saying it would have the “millions or billions” it required to tackle the disease. Public sector net investment was set to rise from nearly 2 per cent of national income to 3 per cent while the government would refund some of the cost to business for doling out statutory sick pay for those self-isolating.
A scheduled Budget for autumn 2020 was scrapped because of the pandemic.
Prime minister: Theresa May; Chancellor: Philip Hammond
Philip Hammond declared that Britain’s era of austerity was “finally coming to an end” as he delivered the largest giveaway Budget since 2010. He warned however that a disorderly Brexit could cast a cloud over cash-starved public services. Upgraded government borrowing and growth forecasts enabled the chancellor to fund an annual increase in NHS spending that would rise to £27.6bn by 2023/24. The NHS was pitched for a 3.4 per cent real increase every year for five years but all other public services — including schools, police, social care, prisons and housing — would at best only enjoy an inflation-linked rise after eight years of cuts.
Prime minister: Theresa May; Chancellor: Philip Hammond
Philip Hammond promised to fix the UK housing market and his signature policy plan was a £44bn package of investment, loans and guarantees to increase the number of new homes built. Weak productivity growth prompted a cut in five-year estimates for UK economic expansion, giving the chancellor less room to offset any shock from leaving the EU. The forecast indicated households would face 17 years of stagnation in pay levels.