Hunt’s Budget did not address the problems facing us all

THE Chancellor proclaimed last week’s Budget would lead the UK to a high-wage and high-skills economy.

While this sounds good in principle, he didn’t actually announce anything that would deliver this.

This was an important Budget. The UK is suffering the longest pay squeeze for more than 200 years, the nation is struggling desperately through a cost-of-living crisis and our public services are run-down and understaffed. Last week’s Budget was an opportunity for the Government to listen to the people and fix the mess. It seems they decided to pass the opportunity up.

We asked the chancellor to boost pay across the economy. Not surprisingly, he did nothing to address the public sector pay crisis. There was nothing to get us on a path to a £15 minimum wage, or to set up the fair pay agreements we know we need to drive up fair pay across the economy.

We asked the chancellor for strong public services. But the chancellor didn’t even mention them. He offered none of the new funding desperately needed to recruit the nurses, carers and teachers that our public services rely on.

And while long-overdue announcements on childcare, which follow years of union campaigning, were welcomed, the funding promised falls well short of what’s needed.

We asked for fair taxation. Yet the Chancellor declined to extend the windfall tax on firms profiting from the gas price crisis, even though big oil firms fully doubled their profits last year. And there was nothing in the budget to restrict energy bills sky-rocketing again. No new funding for upgrades to our leaky, draughty homes.

Finally, we asked for a plan for sustainable growth that creates decent jobs. While the Government did announce a significant spend to encourage UK businesses to raise their low rates of investment and confirmed their intention to invest into Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage, these announcements do little to secure the future of the rest of the UK’s heavy industries.

Industrial strategy, and a proper strategy to navigate the climate transition, protecting jobs and livelihoods along the way, is still lacking. This year’s spring Budget was ambitionless - more of the same at best, and certainly not a Budget that will address the most pressing problems facing the UK right now.