Autumn Budget 2021

The Autumn Budget and Spending Review could have had huge potential significance, although financial markets are so far unimpressed. Faster growth this year created the headroom for increased spending plans but some of the positive factors are likely transient. An increased tax burden has been left to take the strain, projected to reach levels not seen since the former USSR launched its first Sputnik satellite. Any disturbance to economic growth next year, perhaps from COVID or overly aggressive rate hikes, could take us back to WW2 levels of taxation, creating a difficult backdrop for the next general election, which could come as soon as 2023.