- Chancellor Philip Hammond will deliver his next Budget to MPs on November 22
- Hammond must find money to bolster the economy and fix earlier mistakes
- But controversial measures will be extemely difficult to clear the Commons
The Budget will cut a planned 3.9 per cent hike in business rates and pave the way for building houses on the green belt, it was claimed today.
Philip Hammond delivers his next Budget on November 22 against a backdrop of economic uncertainty over Brexit and needing to find billions to unwind earlier errors.
Instead of increasing business rates by the RPI measure of inflation, the Chancellor will tell firms he will use the lower CPI.
The move will save businesses hundreds of millions of pounds when the next round of rates kicks in from April.
Philip Hammond delivers his next Budget on November 22 against a backdrop of economic uncertainty over Brexit and needing to find billions to unwind earlier errors
Talks between Mr Hammond and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid convened by Prime Minister Theresa May have also yielded agreement on housing plans, the Sunday Times said.
The Budget will not now offer lower tax rates for younger workers after publication of the idea provoked a backlash.
And Mr Hammond is thought likely to resist calls for a massive borrowing spree that could bolster the economy but risk ending Tory efforts to clear the deficit despite seven years of austerity.
A senior figure told the paper: ‘The general election sent some political warning signals, which need to be responded to.
‘We are going to tackle intergenerational unfairness and the obvious dysfunctionality in the housing market.’
A Whitehall source told The Sunday Telegraph: ‘The Chancellor is keen to liberalise planning restrictions and is looking very closely at the green belt and what can be done there.
‘But there is difficulty in that the Prime Minister is not convinced by it.’
The Chancellor is also said to be studying plans to provide better transport links around London to make more areas viable commuter towns.
He is also drawing up a package of measures to train young people for the hi-tech jobs of the future and plough money into research and development in sectors such as artificial intelligence and robotics.
The chancellor will also outline plans to improve productivity, which he regards as the most important factor in boosting growth in the years ahead.
Talks between Mr Hammond and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid (file image) convened by Prime Minister Theresa May have also yielded agreement on housing plans, reports say