UK borrowing rises in October but leaves Hunt room for some tax cuts – business live

UK productivity has fallen, new figures show, highlighting the weakness of the economy.

The Office for National Statistics report that output per UK worker fell by 0.1% in July-September, compared with a year ago.

UK output per hour worked declined by 0.3%, year-on-year.

Bart van Ark, managing director of The Productivity Institute, says the UK needs to urgently make changes to tackle its productivity problems, which are holding back growth.

“Another poor quarterly performance for productivity reinforces our view that Britain is in urgent need of a national agenda to double annual productivity over the next 10 years. We anticipate growth is likely to stall for 2023 on the whole.

“A combination of the pandemic plus already weak productivity in the decade preceding it has seen the UK stuck in a growth rut of around 0.5% a year on average. The recent downward revision by the Office for National Statistics of productivity growth in the public sector from 0.7% to 0.3% per year over the past decade is adding to the problems on our plate.

“If the country’s productivity performance doesn’t improve, we predict UK GDP growth would drop to less than 1% a year on average over the next decade. This would fall far short of what’s required to bolster businesses and the government’s revenues, which will be needed to invest in living standards and accelerating performance in the private and public sectors.”

Tax receipts so far this financial year have swelled by £23.9bn to £457.3bn, new data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) shows.

HMRC report that since April, cash receipts were higher mainly from Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) (£11.2bn), VAT (£8.2bn) and business taxes (£7.1bn).

Receipts from Inheritance Tax have totalled £4.6bn for April-October, a rise of £500m compared with last year. There’s speculation that Jeremy Hunt could make cuts to inheritance tax – which is paid by fewer than 4% of all estates.

Paul Barham, partner at Mazars, says:

“£4.6bn has been collected in IHT payments since April and while on track for a record year, it’s future is firmly in the spotlight. Rumours of changes are rife but exactly what the Chancellor is planning is yet to be revealed.

“There are several options on the table. There could be the raising of the threshold at which estates become liable to an inheritance tax charge, acknowledging the increases in property and asset wealth through recent years, or the standard 40% tax rate could be lowered. Or indeed a combination of these could be announced.

“In many of these scenarios, the age-old advice of planning early is likely to stick. Estate planning needs time and that will always be true.”

However, cash receipts from stamp taxes fell (by £3.3bn) while tobacco taxes dropped (by £1bn).

The drop in stamp duty tax receipts is due to “lower transaction numbers, the lower rate of taxation and a more generous relief for first time buyers introduced in September 2022”, HMRC says.

The broad picture is that Britain’s national debt is still its highest level since the early 1960s.

Public sector net debt was £2,643.7bn at the end of October, which is around 97.8% of the UK’s annual gross domestic product (GDP).

That’s 2.3 percentage points higher than a year ago, and the highest share of the economy since 1963.

However, this isn’t dampening speculation about tax cuts tomorrow.

Lindsay James, investment strategist from Quilter Investors, says:

Historically, managing a debt load of this magnitude has been a delicate balancing act. Yet, in the context of this fiscal tightrope, the government’s newfound slack is something they will want to take advantage of, hence the change of rhetoric from one of absolutely no tax cuts to potential changes to income tax or national insurance contributions. Tomorrow’s Autumn Statement is poised to be a pivotal moment, with the government facing mounting pressure to ease the tax burden.

As we stand on the cusp of a range of significant fiscal announcements, the nation will be hoping for measures that will not unsteady our trajectory out of the cost of living crisis but serve to invigorate our economy too.

With the election drawing nearer, the Chancellor surely won’t be able to resist the temptation to unveil “a pre-election splash tomorrow”, predicts Ruth Gregory, deputy chief uk economist at Capital Economics.

But any tax cuts won’t fully reverse the current squeeze, and could be followed by pain in 2025, Gregory warns:

Even if Mr Hunt spends the bulk of any money at his disposal, much of the planned £39bn (1.3% of GDP) tightening unveiled after the Truss/Kwarteng mini-budget will remain in place.

So this won’t be a big fiscal loosening, rather a partial reversal of the planned tightening. And any pre-election splash in 2024 will almost certainly be followed by hefty tax rises in 2025 after the election.

This fiscal tightening in 2025 is another reason to think that when interest rate cuts occur they will be faster and larger than investors currently anticipate.

Inflation has pushed up the UK government’s borrowing, today’s public finances report shows.

In October 2023, the interest payable on central government debt was £7.5bn –- the highest interest payable in any October since monthly records began in April 1997.

That’s £1.1bn more than in October 2022, and £2.6bn more than the Office for Budget Responsibility (the fiscal watchdog) had predicted.

The interest payment on index-linked government debt (or gilts) is linked to the retail prices index measure of inflation.

The ONS says:

The large month-on-month increases in Retail Price Index (RPI) observed since early 2021 have led to substantial increases in debt interest payable, with the largest three months on record occurring in 2022 and 2023.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

Britain borrowed almost £15bn to balance the public finances last month, more than expected, new figures show.

However, borrowing so far this financial year is nearly £17bn lower than forecast – giving room for some policy changes in tomorrow’s autumn statement.

Public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks rose to £14.9bn in October, the Office for National Statistics reports. That’s £4.4bn more than in October 2022, and also more than September’s £14.6bn.

Economists had expected a smaller deficit last month, of around £12bn.

It’s the second highest October borrowing since monthly records began in 1993, after October 2020 (when Covid-19 pandemic spending pushed the deficit up to almost £20bn).

This takes borrowing this financial year (since April) up to £98.3bn, which is nearly £22bn more than a year ago.

But, despite some upward revisions to borrowing over recent months, it is still £16.9bn less than the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast in March 2023.

That confirms that chancellor Jeremy Hunt does have some more ‘headroom’ to raise spending or cut taxes while sticking to the UK’s fiscal rules, when he delivers the autumn statement at 12.30pm on Wednesday.

Hunt has responded to the news, saying:

“We met our pledge to halve inflation, but we must keep on supporting the Bank of England to drive inflation down to 2%. That means being responsible with the nation’s finances.

“At my Autumn Statement tomorrow, I will focus on how we boost business investment and get people back into work to deliver the growth our country needs.”

Yesterday, prime minister Rishi Sunak hinted that business taxes could be cut to boost economic growth.

Sunak promised to reduce the tax burden “carefully and sustainably” and “over time”, stressing that he is focused on “the supply side” of the economy.

Also coming up today

The Treasury Committee will question the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, and members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today, about inflation and economic data.

The committee are likely to quiz witnesses about the latest wage growth and unemployment, and if there’s a risk the Bank has overtightened monetary policy….

Last night, Bailey said there was more work to do to bring inflation back to its 2% target – and there remained a risk that borrowing costs might need to increase in the coming months.

The governor declared:

“Let me be very clear: it is far too early to be thinking about rate cuts.”

The agenda

• 7am GMT: UK public finances for October

• 10.15am GMT: Treasury committee to question Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey on inflation and economic data

• 1.30pm GMT: Canadian inflation rate for October