Time for Another People's Budget
Article
This year's budget on 22 April will be the most important for many years. The UK economy is deep in recession; unemployment is widely expected to increase to 3 million; and independent forecasts suggest the Government's budget deficit will be around 10 per cent of GDP in 2009-10, even before any measures contained in the 2009 Budget. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling faces the unenviable task of having to produce a package of measures that supports the economy in the short term, while providing reassurance that the deficit will be reduced in the medium term.
In this paper, we urge Darling to look to the great reforming Chancellor David Lloyd George for inspiration. Almost 100 years to the day before this year's budget, on 29 April 1909, Lloyd George presented arguably the most famous, the most radical and the greatest UK budget. He made the moral case for taxation to finance welfare spending and established the principle of a progressive tax system. The budget was such a success that it was given a soubriquet and is now known as the 'People's Budget'.
Alistair Darling should be as bold as Lloyd George was 100 years ago. To counter the recessionary forces in the economy, he should propose a package of measures that includes:
- A substantial increase in personal tax allowances
- Extra spending to achieve the Government's child poverty reduction target
- Extra spending on low-carbon technology
- An immediate restoration of the link between pensions and earnings.
Related items
Dr Parth Patel on BBC Politics Live - July 2024
IPPR's Dr Parth Patel on BBC Politics Live discussing the new Labour government, Covid, migration and international affairsA ‘mandate’ to deliver: Who voted Labour and what do they want?
This year’s general election saw the Labour party achieve a historic landslide, winning 218 new seats and a comfortable majority in the House of Commons.Half of us: Turnout patterns at the 2024 general election
One-half of adults in this country voted at the 2024 general election, the lowest share of the population to vote since universal suffrage.