Institute for Fiscal Studies RSS feed

Tax rises look likely after Queen's speech

2009-11-18T09:30:29Z

Queen's Speech: Post-election tax increases move closer as Gordon Brown pitches for fourth Labour term with promises aimed at families worried about children and elderly parents

Brown uses surprise welfare savings for pre-election spree

2009-10-01T08:22:05Z

Gordon Brown is banking on a surprise saving on welfare bills to help pay for a multi-billion-pound splurge before the election

�90 billion deficit �leaves all three parties clueless�

2009-09-17T08:42:09Z

None of Britain's political parties has yet shown how they will fill a �90billion gap in public finances, a leading think tank said

Brown accused of trying to cover up 10% spending cuts

2009-09-16T08:18:51Z

Gordon Brown was accused of lying by the Tories after leaked Treasury documents appeared to expose secret government plans to cut spending by almost 10 per cent

Public sector staff warned 'gold-plated pensions are over'

2009-08-26T08:48:54Z

Millions of public sector workers face having their pensions cut or being forced to increase their contributions

Brown to outline big cuts as Tories take 16% poll lead

2009-08-25T05:45:15Z

Gordon Brown set to outline raft of spending cuts in bid to persuade voters that Labour is serious about cutting the soaring deficit

'Eight years of pain ahead' from spending cuts

2009-07-24T08:09:51Z

Britain faces 'eight years of pain' as the Government seeks to cut the nation's overdraft, experts warned

Minister admits Labour will raise tax ... if it wins election

2009-06-11T08:31:57Z

Labour may increase taxes again if it wins the next election, Treasury minister Liam Byrne has signalled

Gap between rich and poor widens

2009-05-07T13:25:56Z

Income inequality in Britain has hit a 48-year high, economic experts claimed

�We�ve never seen public finances get so bad in such a short time�

2009-04-29T05:51:37Z

Interview: Robert Chote�s think-tank pulled no punches with its cool-headed Budget analysis. No wonder the City rates him � and Gordon Brown is wary

Billions lost in recession are gone forever warns IFS

2009-04-23T08:37:54Z

Britain has permanently lost billions of pounds because of the recession, the Budget small print revealed

Revealed: �45bn �hole� in Budget

2009-04-23T15:30:22Z

A �45 billion black hole in Alistair Darling�s Budget spells more tax rises, independent experts said

National debt now adds up to �16,700 for every person

2009-04-22T08:58:52Z

Britain's national debt is about to smash the �1trillion barrier for the first time

Tax rises likely as PM holds talks on �40bn black hole

2009-04-06T08:30:10Z

Fears of more tax rises and painful public spending cuts grow

The Chancellor's faulty forecasts

2009-04-06T08:19:36Z

LAST NOVEMBER, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, predicted in his pre-Budget report that the economy would pick up by the summer of this year

Schools, housing and NHS face big cuts

2009-03-19T09:22:19Z

Britain faces painful public spending cuts to balance the books after the recession, experts warned

Budget in disarray as UK dives deeper into the red

2009-03-19T09:09:57Z

The Chancellor was given a splitting headache over the Budget as recession plunged Britain deeper into the red

Millions benefit from falling mortgage bills

2009-03-09T14:22:38Z

Millions of families are seeing the cost of living fall as mortgage bills drop, a new study reveals

A muted response to the IMF's gloom

2009-01-29T09:30:53Z

The Prime Minister did not mention yesterday's dire IMF prediction for the UK economy when he announced new economic rescue measures today, but its forecast of a 2.8 per cent shrinkage in the economy this year - the deepest recession for any major economy - was the inescapable backdrop

Britain 'will have worst recession'

2009-01-28T10:06:38Z

The British economy will contract by 2.8 per cent this year - the worst of any Western country - the International Monetary Fund declared

50 per cent tax relief on giving to poor

2008-12-24T11:54:07Z

The wealthy are to be encouraged to give more money to charities under a Treasury plan to offer 50 per cent tax relief on gifts to the poorest

Darling tax rises to leave us �worse off than in 1997�

2008-12-01T09:11:15Z

Alistair Darling�s pre-Budget report will leave average families more than �1,283 worse off in tax than they were when Labour came to power in 1997, an independent think tank has claimed

Brown refuses to rule out higher VAT rate as Cameron launches attack

2008-11-26T09:24:23Z

Gordon Brown has admitted that the Government considered raising the VAT rate to 20 per cent or higher before rejecting the plan

Secret budget tax blow for millions more

2008-11-25T16:24:14Z

Independent economists have warned that Alistair Darling�s mini-budget will mean far worse tax hits than he claimed

Tax giveaway will beat the slump, says Brown

2008-11-17T14:17:22Z

Gordon Brown has declared he can beat the slump with a tax giveaway worth billions of pounds

Now Lloyds sends in the old-fashioned bankers

2008-09-18T11:37:21Z

It's painful to say so, but HBOS really doesn�t deserve to survive as an independent bank

�600m? Stamp duty move will not cost anything like that, say tax experts

2008-09-03T08:33:57Z

The Government's £600 million stamp duty holiday looks set to be hundreds of millions of pounds less generous than Downing Street claims

PM's homes measures 'will hit 2012 legacy'

2008-09-03T15:35:07Z

Gordon Brown is paying for his housing rescue package by cutting London's regeneration budget by nearly £60million

Comment: Inflation and the real economy

2008-07-15T08:50:44Z

The succession of bleak economic statistics right now must seem to the Government to be almost endless

Green spies and taxmen who make us see red

2008-06-18T08:12:42Z

The British are a stoic people, not given to hanging civil servants from lampposts. We barely raised a murmur at the billions Whitehall wasted on the passport, NHS, Serps, probation, prisons and courts computerisation programmes