Despite promising no rabbits in hats or displays of showmanship — unlike his predecessor — Philip Hammond managed to offer up a few surprises in his first Autumn Statement. For one, that this will be his last — with the Chancellor putting an end to the annual event. Secondly, he chose one project to give a special shout out — a £7.6million grant to save Wentworth Woodhouse, the stately home in Yorkshire which has fallen into disrepair:
‘Mr Speaker I have deliberately avoided making this speech into a long list of projects being supported. But I am going to make one exception. I will act today with just seven days to spare to save one of the UK’s most historic houses: Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham.
It is said to be the inspiration for Pemberley in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. But in 1946 in an extraordinary act of cultural vandalism, the then Labour government authorised extensive open cast coal mining virtually up to the front door of this precious property. Perhaps Mr Speaker, that’s Labour’s idea of a Northern Powerhouse.’
Hammond’s belief that this would be a crowd-pleaser misjudged the mood. Theresa May’s government have made it a key policy aim to help the Jams — the ‘just about managing families’ — and the Treasury needed to show that in the same Autumn Statement corporation tax is slashed, ordinary working people remain a priority. It follows that heralding the restoration of a stately home sends a conflicting message — no matter the intention.
It would have been far wiser to keep the government’s ban on letting fees as a surprise to announce in the chamber. It’s a policy change that will be welcomed by both millenials — a group not known for being massive Tory supporters — and the families on low incomes that the government insist are its no 1 concern. In the end — despite Hammond’s criticism of George Osborne — it was the Chancellor’s lack of showmanship that let him down.
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