What Hunt’s ‘tax-cutting’ Budget didn’t mention

Can the Tory party now credibly claim it is cutting taxes? That was the big mystery going into Jeremy Hunt’s pre-election Budget this afternoon, as so many of the policy measures had already been trailed. 

As expected, the Chancellor announced another 2p off employee National Insurance, following on from the 2p cut he announced in the Autumn Statement. Between both fiscal events, NI falls from 12 per cent to 8 per cent (and from 10 per cent to 6 per cent for the self-employed) – a saving of £900 a year for the average worker. Hunt also announced changes to child benefit rules, which will shift the calculations from individual to household earnings, and raise the threshold for paying the charge. The Treasury estimates, with these changes, that ‘nearly half a million families with children will save an average of around £1,300 next year.’ 

The tax cuts are barely affordable. The Chancellor has further reduced his headroom to meet his fiscal rules – which require debt to be falling as a percentage of GDP in the medium term – from £13 billion last November to £8.9