𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Experts have suggested that John Healey could make mistakes in his Budget that would make him as bad as Rachel Reeves. The former Chancellor was accused of making things harder for British businesses and households by rolling out a litany of tax measures, such as increasing employers’ national insurance contributions and extending the freeze on income tax and national insurance thresholds until April 2031. Now, her successor is set to raise the red briefcase outside Number 11 Downing Street for the first time, and speculation is rife as to what could be inside.

Professor of economics at the University of Buckingham and editorial and research fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEZ), Len Shackleton, told the Express that mistakes Mr Healey could make include: not providing a clear defence spending plan, hiking capital gains tax, extending the income tax threshold freeze, subsidising energy prices, introducing a property or wealth tax and boasting about so-called fiscal headroom after being given “optimistic” growth forecasts.

“He’ll be as bad or worse if he does not present a clear plan and timetable for funding a boost for defence expenditure,” Prof. Shackleton said. “Indeed, he’ll be worse than her as he had made such a point of resigning as defence secretary.

“To add to incompetence he’d be displaying blatant hypocrisy. I fear he’ll be tempted by pushing up capital gains tax, perhaps to the standard rate of income tax.

“This would have all sorts of undesirable effects which would ultimately be passed on to people who never had a capital gain in their life. He’ll almost certainly continue with the ‘stealth tax’ incurred by not raising income tax bands and the personal allowance in line with inflation, probably pushing this scam further into the future.

“He’ll probably find some way of subsidising energy prices — a costly temporary fix which did for Liz Truss. Of course subsidising energy prices is insane when a big chunk of energy prices is made up of net zero levies.”

“And cutting prices leads to increased consumption of energy, something net zero fanatics abhor.” He added that Andy Burnham has “frequently hinted that he wants some form of property or wealth tax”, and if Mr Healey goes along with this he would “definitely be doing worse than Rachel Reeves”.

“I expect he will crow that the measures he has taken will, when fed overly optimistic growth forecasts, create increased ‘fiscal headroom’, something Ms Reeves was inclined to boast about herself,” Prof. Shackleton concluded.

Dennis Reed, the director of Silver Voices, an independent campaign group for over 60s, also warned against the freezing of thresholds. He also warned against restricting energy support and failing to adequately fund social care.

“The Budget will prove whether John Healey is ‘continuity Reeves’ or not,” Mr Reed said. “Reeves would have kept the tax thresholds frozen, provided energy support for those on benefits only and provided no extra support for social care.

“We want to see the lower tax threshold raised by £1,000 at least, the winter fuel payment doubled and a down payment this year on Burnham’s commitment to free social care. We shall see!”

Jinesh Vohra, CEO of mortgage app Sprive, said Mr Healey should not make things harder for homeowners. “Millions of homeowners are coming off cheap fixed rates onto much higher payments, so the last thing they need is a Budget that squeezes them further,” he said.

“One thing I’d like to see the Chancellor introduce is a scheme allowing employers to pay into employees’ mortgages tax-free, in the same way they can contribute to pensions. For most homeowners, their mortgage is their biggest monthly expense, so this could make a real difference, helping people pay off their mortgages sooner and become mortgage-free faster.

“On a typical £200,000 mortgage, an extra £100 a month takes more than three years off the term and saves around £24,000 in interest.”