Reeves faces £20-billion hole ahead of her November Budget
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing a larger-than-expected deficit ahead of her upcoming November budget. Data seen by both the BBC and the Guardian indicates that the downgrade is the result of long-running poor productivity in the UK economy.
The downgrade to productivity performance from the government’s official forecaster could lead to a £20 billion gap in the public finances on its own, the BBC reports.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will deliver its final draft forecast, showing the output of the economy per hour worked, to the Treasury on Friday.
The Treasury declined to comment on ‘speculation’ ahead of the OBR’s final forecast, which will be published on 26 November.
Advertised job vacancies in the UK have continued to fall as businesses slow down hiring ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s November Budget.
New data from Adzuna shows that the total number of advertised vacancies dropped by 2.4% in September compared to August to 826,205. Job advertisements are now 4.1% lower than a year ago, with September recording the lowest vacancy level of the year.
Notably, there are now more than two job seekers for every vacancy, the highest ratio since early 2024, Adzuna said.
The UK’s biggest retailers have already warned that they will not be able to cope with a proposed surtax mooted ahead of the budget.
Leaders from nine of Britain’s biggest supermarkets have written to Reeves to urge her to exclude shops from the proposed business rates surtax.
“The UK grocery market is highly competitive with narrow profit margins that are well below those found in most other industries. Consumers benefit from some of the lowest food prices in the developed world. And while we continuously seek efficiencies, our ability to absorb additional costs is diminishing,” the group said.
“If the industry faces higher taxes in the coming Budget – such as being included in the new surtax on business rates – our ability to deliver value for our customers will become even more challenging and it will be households who inevitably feel the impact.”
