Boosting growth and investment while averting austerity is a tough ask, but options are available for the chancellor, writes the research director of the Resolution Foundation
• Labour MPs urge Reeves to spend tens of billions more on ailing public services
The chancellor has said she wants to avoid a “return to austerity”. She’s also said she’ll deliver a pro-investment, pro-growth budget. Those are laudable goals, but she must fix a dire set of public finances, a tough task not helped by the £22bn overspend uncovered this summer. This is the trilemma facing Rachel Reeves before the government’s pivotal first budget. Here’s how she might try to tackle it.
