Budget 2021: strip away pandemic largesse and UK is banking on recovery with no extra public spending

By Steve Schifferes, Honorary Research Fellow, City Political Economy Research Centre, City, University of London

What a difference a year makes. In March 2020, the chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced an emergency budget pledging £12 billion to tackle coronavirus. One year later, the government has already spent £280 billion, and spending by spring 2022 will exceed £400 billion.

The 2021 budget – perhaps the most widely leaked in history – contains a cornucopia of short-term measures, such as the extensions to the furlough…

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