Centre for London response to Chancellor’s Medium-Term Fiscal Plan

Responding to the Chancellor’s statement to the House of Commons, Centre for London Chief Executive Nick Bowes said:

“I said when the mini-budget was announced that the impact was unlikely to be felt equally across London. The same is true of today’s dramatic unpicking just a matter of a few weeks later.

The looming prospect of further spending cuts to public services will send a chill through local government, schools and hospitals all of which are still feeling the pain of austerity since 2010.

Londoners on the lowest incomes who rely most on support from the public purse risk being hit hardest, at a time that’s already extremely tough.

Many households in London are already worried about heating their homes this winter. Ending support for energy bills in April creates unnecessary uncertainty for some of the country’s hardest hit households.

Interestingly one of the few measures to survive is the cut to stamp duty. This benefitted London and the South East more than elsewhere, but also brings with it the triple whammy of a risk of an over-heating housing market mixed, not enough supply and now higher mortgages.

London’s financial services sector, so crucial to the economic health of both the city and the country, will be watching the markets nervously as they digest what this means for the country’s balance sheet.”