Summer economic statement

There has been much speculation about what the chancellor was going to produce at the dispatch box in July 2020. We heard demands for an Emergency Budget from the opposition comments from HM Treasury that this would be an Economic Update and calls from businesses to deliver extensions to the furlough scheme. In the end in a House of Commons uncharacteristically empty due to the Covid-19 restrictions we saw something that wasn’t quite what anyone predicted but could easily qualify as a ‘mini-Budget’ with spending and tax measures but no economic forecast.

The chancellor called it ‘a plan for jobs’ and accompanied his speech with a 33-page document that covered the economic and fiscal context today’s announcements and the measures announced since the Budget back in March. This was no ‘red book’ but nevertheless contained the details that were touched upon...