Long-term damage will derail growth that would have seen UK overtake Germany, consultancy warns
Jeremy Hunt’s tax raid will leave Britain stagnating on the world stage, according to new analysis that shows the Chancellor’s attack on aspiration will leave the country languishing behind other economies for the next two decades.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) warned that the jump in Britain’s tax burden, which is set to climb to a peacetime high in 2024, will inflict long-term damage and derail growth that would have seen the UK overtake Germany.
“A higher interest rate and high-tax environment are set to weigh on the UK’s growth prospects for much of the coming decade,” the CEBR said.
The consultancy criticised measures in the Autumn Statement that it warned will “disincentive entrepreneurship, productivity, and labour market supply”.
Last year CEBR predicted Britain would overtake Germany to be Europe’s biggest economy by 2050, but it has now abandoned this forecast despite more favourable demographics.