LONDON (Reuters) -British finance minister Rachel Reeves announced her budget update to parliament on Wednesday. Below are the quotes on the key issues: REEVES ON GLOBAL UNCERTAINTY “The global economy has become more uncertain.” “The increased global uncertainty has had two consequences. First, on our public finances. And second, on the economy.” REEVES ON FISCAL […]
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UK’s Reeves announces budget update to parliament
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LONDON (Reuters) -British finance minister Rachel Reeves announced her budget update to parliament on Wednesday.
Below are the quotes on the key issues:
REEVES ON GLOBAL UNCERTAINTY
“The global economy has become more uncertain.”
“The increased global uncertainty has had two consequences. First, on our public finances. And second, on the economy.”
REEVES ON FISCAL RULES
“These fiscal rules are non-negotiable. They are the embodiment of this government’s unwavering commitment to bring stability to our economy.”
REEVES ON NO FURTHER TAX INCREASES
“As I promised in the autumn, this statement does not contain any further tax increases.”
REEVES ON TAX EVASION
“To cut down on tax evasion…I go further continuing our investment in cutting-edge technology, investing in HMRC’s capacity to crack down on tax avoidance and setting out plans to increase the number of tax fraudsters charged each year by 20%. These changes raise a further 1 billion pounds ($1.29 billion)taking total revenue raised from reducing tax evasion under this government to 7.5 billion pounds.”
REEVES ON WELFARE BUDGET
“The OBR have said that they estimate the package will save 4.8 billion pounds in the welfare budget reflecting their judgements on behavioural effects and wider factors.”
“We are investing 1 billion pounds to provide guaranteed, personalised employment support to help people back into work and 400 million pounds to support the Department for Work and Pensions to deliver these reforms effectively and fairly taking total savings from the package to 3.4 billion pounds.”
REEVES ON REFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES
“I build on that work by bringing forward 3.25 billion pounds of investment to deliver the reforms that our public services need through a new Transformation Fund. That is money brought forward now to bring down the costs of running government by the end of the forecast period by making public services more efficient and more productive.”
REEVES ON DEFENCE SPENDING
“We will spend a minimum of 10% of the Ministry of Defence’s equipment budget on novel technologies including drones and AI enabled technology.”
“The Defence Secretary and I will establish a new Defence Growth Board to maximise the benefits from every pound of taxpayers’ money that we spend. And we will put Defence at the heart of our modern industrial strategy to drive innovation that can deliver huge benefits back into the British economy.”
($1 = 0.7753 pounds)
(Reporting by UK bureau)