What Jeremy Hunt’s Budget got right – and what it got wrong

It was disappointing that the government didn’t address any of the underlying problems of the personal tax system, writes Nimesh Shah

This Budget felt like a non-event (PA Wire)

Did we really need a Budget from the chancellor today? Arguably not, as there was very little he had to tell the country. Jeremy Hunt’s laboured Budget speech, lasting over an hour and double the length of his predecessor’s ill-fated mini-Budget told us nothing new – and that was after the various leaks over the past few days. In many ways, it was a Budget statement that characterised Jeremy Hunt himself – logical, solid but underwhelming in large parts.

Jeremy Hunt’s Budget can be broken down into three main areas of focus – addressing energy price inflation, incentives for a return to work for the “economically inactive” and enterprise (one of Hunt’s four Es).

The main announcement on energy was made over five hours before Hunt took to the Parliamentary lectern – that the government, with the help of Martin Lewis, would extend the current energy support for domestic households for a further three months, saving a typical household £160 and at a fairly modest cost of £3 billion to the Treasury.