Spring budget: slavishly following fiscal rules is holding back this government and will hold back the next one

By Phil Tomlinson, Professor of Industrial Strategy, Co-Director Centre for Governance, Regulation and Industrial Strategy (CGR&IS), University of Bath

The March 2024 budget turned into an exercise in political game playing rather than an attempt to address the UK’s ongoing economic woes. It was dominated by more cuts to national insurance (after a previous drop in January this year), which the chancellor hopes will revive the government’s electoral fortunes ahead of the general election.

To partly fund this, Jeremy Hunt stole Labour’s plans to scrap “non-dom status”, which allows…

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