Hammond's budget is gambling with public finances, says IFS
by Richard Partington Economics correspondent from on (#41WN4)
Extra NHS funding ignores risk of UK accounts deteriorating badly after Brexit, thinktank says
Philip Hammond has been warned that he is gambling with the future health of the UK's public finances after handing out tax cuts to the rich while finding extra money for the NHS by increasing national borrowing.
In a stinging verdict on the chancellor's budget, which Hammond had used to claim that austerity was ending and is set to be the last before Brexit, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said he had been lucky to receive better short-term news for the government's coffers that could quickly evaporate.
Related: Budget income tax cuts 'to overwhelmingly benefit the rich'
Related: What does the 2018 budget mean for you?
Continue reading...