Britain's new finance minister John Healey will deliver his first budget on 28 October, pledging to maintain the fiscal rules inherited from his predecessor Rachel Reeves.
Healey said the budget would focus on shifting investment and decision-making away from Westminster and towards communities across the UK, while maintaining tight control of public finances.
"This will be a budget that moves money and power out of Westminster, and into every postcode around Britain," Healey said in a statement. "It will be built on fiscal discipline. It will meet our fiscal rules."
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who entered Downing Street less than two weeks ago, has also pledged to keep to the government's fiscal framework.
One of its key commitments is to ensure that day-to-day public spending is covered by tax revenues by the end of the decade.
However, economists say the government has little room for manoeuvre if it is to meet that target. Plans to increase defence spending and improve social care could add further pressure to the public finances.
Mr Burnham has indicated that meeting the fiscal rules could require higher taxes, saying the government may have to "ask for a little more". At the same time, he has promised to honour commitments made by former Prime Minister Keir Starmer not to increase the main rates of taxation.
The 28 October budget will therefore be a major test of the new government's ability to balance its spending ambitions with its commitment to fiscal discipline. Photo by UKinUSA, Wikimedia commons.
