With enormous financial questions looming,and the legacy of austerity not yet behind, the chancellor has scant opportunity to change coursePhilip Hammond’s first budget takes space on Wednesday with Brexit overshadowing his debut. The chancellor has released many of his Treasury staff to the newly created Brexit and international trade departments. Those that have stayed are on Brexit duty themselves, and figuring out how leaving the European Union’s single market and the customs union will affect the economy.
That leaves minute capacity for redrawing the map of public spending or overhauling existing taxes and designing new ones. Hammond is also constrained by the policies of his predecessor,George Osborne, who plugged holes in the public finances with a range of stealth taxes that are on course to push the tax burden in 2018 to 37% of GDP – the highest level in 30 years.
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Source: theguardian.com