Healey seeks to steer UK through ‘difficult moment’ with low-key budget

British finance minister John Healey is set to announce a cautious budget plan on Wednesday as he tries to avoid piling more bond market pressure on the new government of Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Banks, gambling firms and online marketplaces such as Amazon AMZN. O and Temu PDD. O are expected to be hit with higher taxes. That would help to pay for support for poorer households facing high energy bills and to freeze fuel duty for drivers. Healey – a former trade union official and a junior Treasury minister in the 1990s – says he wants to give Britain “a bit of breathing space” from the impact of the Iran war that is pushing up inflation. “This budget is about getting through this difficult moment. But it’s also about putting Britain on a future path, a better future path,” he said in a statement.

DEVOLUTION, DEFENCE AND DEBT His first budget – due to be announced in parliament just after 12:30 p. m. (1230 GMT) – will detail how the government plans to give regional mayors more control over tax revenues, part of Burnham’s devolution push. Separately, more than £20 billion in extra support will go to state finance institutions to spur investment in artificial intelligence, defence and green energy by the early 2030s. On entering Downing Street in July, Burnham promised “the biggest changes in the last 40 years”, including a bigger role for the state in the economy. But Healey’s options are limited by the surge in borrowing costs for governments around the world including Britain, where investors remember the 2022 “mini-budget” of former Prime Minister Liz Truss and the ensuing bond market meltdown triggered by its unfunded tax cuts. On Tuesday, Britain paid the highest interest on a 5-year government bond since 2008. After big tax and spending increases in the two…