Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent
One of the main critiques levelled against Rachel Reeves's Spending Review by the Conservatives was Mel Stride warning that tax rises were on the horizon.
This isn’t the first time the
Tories have claimed Labour will increase taxes.
But the Conservatives aren't the
only ones who've indicated that, at some point, that might be the case
The Institute for Fiscal Studies
(IFS), in the run-up to the Spending Review, also made the argument that things
look tight and the chancellor doesn't have a huge amount of wiggle room.
Depending on what happens with
the broader economy, the IFS said there might be some tax rises to come.
However, the government has been
really clear - it said in its manifesto and has repeated it since - that the
three main taxes (as people call them) - income tax, National Insurance and VAT
- won't go up.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves repeated
this just last week.
And when taxes were substantially
increased at last year’s Budget – including employers’ National Insurance
contributions - the government described that as a “one off”.
Beyond that - today is not about
setting tax plans, it's about spending.
So we'll have to see at the
Budget.
But it’s worth noting a
couple of things – the funding for police is likely to factor in an increase in
the element of council tax that you pay towards the police, which is called the
precept.
Similarly, the funding set
out for local government is likely to include an increase in council tax
- which has increased by up to 5% in the past few years.
Earlier today, however, Reeves stressed that the government will not be “going above” council tax increases of 5% per year.