Budget 2011: ‘No more cuts, no more tax rises’
By Ian Dunt
There will be no tax rises or extra spending cuts in next week’s Budget, the chancellor has confirmed.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr programme, George Osborne was keen to stress that the “rescue” aspect of the deficit reduction programme had already been laid out and that there would be no further bad news for the British public on Wednesday.
“Having undertaken a rescue mission I don’t have to come back and ask for more this year,” Mr Osborne said.
“I won’t be asking for more tax increases or spending cuts. We did that in last year’s budget and that allows us in this year’s budget to look at policies which can create jobs in the future.”
Mr Osborne is expected to scrap the proposed rise in fuel duty, in a bid to help calm public anger at the cost of living.
The chancellor is also expected to raise the threshold at which people pay income tax.
“We’ve taken Britain out of the fiscal danger zone. That’s reflected in the interest rates that families in Britain pay,” he said.
“Now we have to move from rescue to recovery and reform.”
Any move to scrap the planned rise in fuel duty would avoid another 5p each litre, and help counter the spiralling cost of filling up the tank, a phenomenon which has only worsened due to the continued political unrest in the Middle East.
There were reports last week that Mr Osborne might alternately be considering a fuel stabiliser – a far more expensive proposition to the estimated £2 billion scrapping the fuel duty would cost the Treasury.
There will also be promises of using the bank tax to create apprenticeships and work-experience placements, in a bid to counter rising youth unemployment.
