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Andy Burnham faces tight constraints for late-October autumn budget
His early budget is set for late October, with a key focus on maintaining credibility with bond markets while sticking to fiscal rules and no increases in income tax, national insurance, or VAT.
Andy Burnham is set to deliver an early budget in late October, but worsening economic conditions are putting pressure on both the prime minister and the chancellor, John Healey, with similar constraints to those faced by previous administrations, according to The Guardian Business.
The article says Burnham’s main budget risk is whether policy would spook bond markets and trigger a sharp selloff, noting that gilt yields rose after he previously described the government as being “in hock to the bond markets.”
To address that concern, Burnham has committed to Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules on debt and borrowing, while also signaling he would look to use “any flexibility” within those rules to fund additional investment, even as he said he will “stick to the manifesto.”
That manifesto pledge includes no increases in income tax, national insurance, or VAT, even as the piece notes businesses had feared potential tax hikes and some leftwing and union leaders have urged consideration of further wealth taxes. Burnham told the Financial Times he is reluctant to raise the costs of doing business and does not want to target “wealth creators.”