2 AUTUMN STATEMENT l 17 November 2022 INTRODUCTION The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement came against the background of a Spring Statement and a September ‘mini-Budget’ (which has now been substantially reversed). The overall context is a European recession and high inflation in the wake of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The Autumn Statement was presented as a difficult and necessary exercise to restore confidence in the UK’s financial position. In October, Mr Hunt spoke of “decisions of eye-watering difficulty” and ever since there has been a regular flow of rumours/leaks about which taxes may increase, how long existing tax allowance freezes could be extended and in which areas spending cuts would fall. The steady supply of information felt like a pre-Budget kite-flying exercise, so that when the bad news arrived it was at least not a complete surprise. But that did not make the wide range of measures announced on 17 November any less painful. Just under half of the £55 billion consolidation came from tax and the balance from spending. Mr Hunt described his strategy as a balanced plan for stability, following two broad principles: asking those with more to contribute more; and avoiding tax rises that most damage growth. Nevertheless, the tax increases announced are substantial, according to Mr Hunt, with tax as a percentage of GDP increasing by 1% over the next five years. The Chancellor said he aimed to deliver a plan to tackle the cost of living crisis and rebuild the economy with stability, growth and public services as the priorities. Official portrait of Jeremy Hunt MP, by Andrew Parsons, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0
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