The cost of Rachel Reeves: £8.2 billion

A study published by the Resolution Foundation, (a think tank which is very far from being an uncritical supporter of the Conservatives or Reform UK,) into the cost of repeated U-turns and policy climbdowns during the course of this parliament, has found that chopping and changing by Chancellor Rachel Reeves has cost the exchequer £8.2 billion.

This figure includes the impact of policy changes on the Winter Fuel payment, Personal Independence Payments, Universal Credit, and the two-child benefits cap. Figures were calculated using Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) data.

There figures do not include the impact of the most recent U-turns on business rates for pubs, inheritance tax for family farms, Jury Trials or compulsory digital ID.

The report finds that policy uncertainty is at the highest level since 1979 where an index measuring it was first introduced.

Greg Thwaites, Research Director at the Resolution Foundation, said that the government had spent much of the past 18 months undermining its' own strategy with "policy U-turns, kite flying tax ideas, and timidity in areas like trade where it needs to be bold."      





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten years ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by th...
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more