Budget 2018: End of austerity claim

PHILIP Hammond has said there will be no “real terms” increase in public spending apart from on the NHS.

The chancellor used his Budget on Monday to say that austerity was coming to an end.

But Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell rejected his claims, saying more welfare cuts were coming and spending was still being squeezed.

Mr Hammond chose to spend a windfall from better tax receipts on the NHS, universal credit and income tax cuts.

Prime Minister Theresa May said bringing austerity to an end was “not just about more money into our public services, it is about more money in people’s pockets as well.”

The Resolution Foundation, a not-for-profit research and policy organisation, which says its goal is to improve outcomes for people on low and modest incomes, said poorer families would be about £30 a year better off from the tax cuts, with the top 10% earners £410 better off.

The organisation said better than expected public finances had given Mr Hammond an extra £74bn to play with – and he had used up three-quarters of that with the extra spending on the NHS, welfare and the income tax changes.

WHAT ELSE WAS ANNOUNCED?

• £400m to allow schools to “buy the little extras they need”
• A digital services taxaimed at tech giants
• Help for first-time buyersof shared ownership properties
• Another freeze in fuel duty
• A £30bn package for England’s roads, including repairs to motorways and potholes
• £900m in business rates relief for small businessesand £650m to rejuvenate high streets
• Tighter tax rulesaffecting private sector contractors
• A tax on plastic packaging which does not contain enough recycled materials – but no disposable plastic cup tax
• An extra £1bn for the Ministry of Defenceto boost cyber capabilities and anti-submarine warfare capacity
• A further £650m of grant funding for English local authorities to spend on social care