Pre-Budget report 2008 - Public policy
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Public sector shortfall highest since 1994
UK public finances are on course to record the largest deficits since the 1970s with government debt also poised to surge as the credit crisis takes its toll on revenues
How you will be affected
FT’s personal finance reporters look at who will be affected by the pre-Budget report, and how
Drive to boost lending gets £2bn backing
Direct response to complaints that mortgage funding and corporate lines of credit have largely dried up as banks hoarded capital
Shops braced for price tags ‘nightmare’
Big high-street names reacted positively to the chancellor’s cut in the rate of value-added tax but warned the reduction was difficult to implement and would be eclipsed by clearance sales
Tory policy review to target public spending
The UK shadow chancellor says his party will recast its economic policies to reflect the impact of the recession, looking at areas of ‘gross waste’ in central government that can be axed
Child poverty drive enlisted to fight recession
The government brought forward payments for children and demanded more help for schools in deprived areas
Darling aims to exceed £30bn savings
Officials say the drive to get better value for money from public expenditure will yield savings ‘in the low billions’, which the chancellor is expected to earmark for curbing the budget deficit
MPs urge scrapping of tax on empty property
Sixty backbench Labour MPs urge Prime Minister Gordon Brown to remove the levy after the economic downturn prompted a surge in vacancy levels across the property sector
Retailer downplays VAT cut’s impact on sales
One of Britain’s biggest retailers argues that the proposed sales tax reduction will make little difference to a high street already slashing prices in the run-up to Christmas
Runaway borrowing to trigger tax rises
Annual public borrowing is set to rocket towards £120bn over the next two years, forcing Alistair Darling to announce plans for deferred tax rises in his pre-Budget report next week
