Mark Hoyle
2K posts

Mark Hoyle
@markjwhoyle
Drink tea, do crosswords, tinker with maths, howl into the void, back to drinking tea.


Exclusive: * Rachel Reeves will use her Budget to freeze fuel duty, cut energy bills and increase the minimum wage in a bid to reduce the cost of living and win over Labour MPs, our political podcast The State of It reveals * The Chancellor will confirm that she is retaining the 5p cut in fuel duty and will also ensure it does not rise in line with inflation. Extending combined reliefs for a year would cost £3bn * Reeves also expected to confirm previous report by The Times that more than 1million low-paid workers will see the national living wage rise by around 3% from £12.21 to around £12.70 * The move will be paid for by employers, which has led to warnings that Reeves risks “pricing jobs out of existence” in the wake of the rise in employers’ national insurance in last year’s Budget * Reeves is also expected to announce a significant cut in household energy paid for by removing a number of green levies currently placed on bills. This will be funded by reducing the government’s £13billion budget for energy efficiency measures known as the Warm Homes Fund * Downing Street said it wanted to see bills fall by £170 by the end of the decade - however the energy secretary Ed Miliband has been fighting a rear-guard action to protect his budget while the Treasury argued that the government could only afford to reduce bills by £70. Not clear where they have landed * In other moves designed to appeal to Labour MPs the Chancellor will also confirm that she is scrapping the two-child benefit cap, a move which will cost £3billion a year, and uprating benefits in line with inflation in a move that will cost £6billion * Reeves told Labour MPs that they would be happy with 95% of Budget. She says it is a Budget they can go out and sell on the doorstep * But it comes with big tax rises - told around a dozen. Freeze on income tax thresholds, tax raid on pension contributions, pay-per-mile charge on electric cars, a high-value property tax, gambling tax, cycle to work tax, tourism tax... these are just the ones we know about * There is a world in which this Budget goes down well with Labour MPs but badly with voters * There is a genuine question of whether Labour is still party of working-class voters. Polling suggests Labour is in denial about core vote, which has become increasingly young middle-class professionals in cities - the kind of voters who will be hit hardest by these tax rises thetimes.com/article/af6030…
























