Friday Briefing: A choice between investment and decline

Friday Briefing

The Labour Party’s first Budget in 14 years is set to open the floodgates for borrowing billions more each year to finance what the IMF has called “badly needed” public investment.

Writing in the FT on Thursday (24 October), Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the self-imposed fiscal rules on borrowing would be relaxed, granting the Treasury more wiggle room to spend on capital investment. What to expect at the upcoming Autumn Budget The tweak to the fiscal rules would allow Britain to borrow as much as £70bn more over the next five years to invest in improving the country's strained public services and infrastructure.  "At my Budget next week, I will show that we have a choice between investment and decline," she wrote in the FT. "I am choosing to invest i...