THE UK Government is set to hold an emergency budget next week to address the cost-of-living crisis amid soaring inflation driven by the war in Ukraine.
Downing Street today confirmed Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will hold a “fiscal event” later this month, despite the disruption to political life caused by the death of the Queen.
With the Commons in recess this week and due to go into recess again on September 22, that means the only opportunity is next week, after the Queen’s funeral on Monday.
No official date has been set however.
Ms Truss promised during the Tory leadership contest that she would make around £30billion of tax cuts if she won, and the occasion will be her chance to deliver on that.
Ms Truss uses the term “fiscal event” rather than budget, as budgets require the independence Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to go over the numbers.
It was also reported today that the bank holiday marking the Queen’s funeral could cost the economy £2billion in lost output and tip the UK into a terchnical slump.
Economists warned it could lead to GDP shrkining for a second consecutive quarter, the definition of a recession.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We are still planning to deliver a fiscal event this month. We would not do that in recess. Beyond that, we have not set out a date."
Ms Truss last week announced long-awaited Government plans to tackle sky-high energy bills and ease the cost-of-living crisis, with a focus on capping prices and boosting domestic energy supplies.
That includes lifting the ban on fracking and new licences for North Sea oil and gas, as well as stating support for clean energy sources including nuclear, wind and solar.
Mr Kwarteng is due to give specifics of how the plan will be funded during the emergency fiscal announcement.
Under the Government’s “energy price guarantee”, bills for the average household will go no higher than £2,500 at any point over the next two years.
It will save a typical home around £1,000 from October 1, when the current consumer price cap had been set to soar, according to official estimates.
Passing legislation is not believed to be required to bring the price guarantee into effect for households, but businesses are still facing a wait for details about additional support.
“There isn’t a date set for the business support element of the guarantee. Obviously we’re working that through. It hasn’t been impacted by the mourning period, as I understand,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman said.
SNP Deputy First Minister John Swinney has said he will produce an emergency budget review of his own on the back of the UK version.
Last week he announced £500million of spending cuts to cope with double-digit inflation eroding the Holyrood budget for 2022/23, and public sector pay hikes costing £700m.
Mr Swinney, the acting finance secretary while Kate Forbes is on maternity leave, also warned of more “hard choices” once the UK figures were known.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel