UK new finance minister John Healey.
Britain’s new Finance Minister John Healey will present his first Budget on October 28, pledging to maintain the government’s fiscal rules despite growing pressure on public spending.Announcing the date on Friday, Healey said the Budget would focus on shifting resources away from central government and towards communities across the UK, while keeping borrowing under control.”This will be a budget that moves money and power out of Westminster, and into every postcode around Britain,” Healey said. “It will be built on fiscal discipline. It will meet our fiscal rules.”Healey said the government would continue to follow the borrowing framework introduced by his predecessor, Rachel Reeves.Prime Minister Andy Burnham has also committed to keeping those rules in place. They require the government to ensure that day-to-day spending is funded through tax revenues by the end of the decade rather than additional borrowing.Economists have warned that the government has limited room to meet its fiscal targets, with several of Burnham’s policy priorities expected to increase pressure on public finances. Among the commitments likely to require additional funding are higher defence spending and improvements to social care.Burnham has acknowledged that meeting the government’s fiscal rules could require “asking for a little more” in tax. However, he has also said the administration will honour the previous Labour government’s commitment not to increase the main rates of taxation.
