On Budget Day, MPs and journalists joke about it being a ‘quiet day’ and ‘not much going on’ as they pass one another in the corridors of Westminster (this is an accurate representation of how utterly hilarious the corridors of power normally are). Today’s Budget was in a number of respects rather quiet, especially in the things it totally missed out.
Philip Hammond didn’t even mention social care, despite the sector’s concerns about whether it can afford a massive back pay bill that has come up partly as a result of a court judgement and partly as a result of government dithering. This comes on top of the long-term sustainability question, which the government is avoiding addressing in any meaningful sense for another few years, planning merely a consultative green paper on the matter next summer.
The Chancellor also avoided announcing major planning reforms, having told the chamber that reform was an important part of getting more homes built.
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