U.K. Finance Minister Seeks to Placate Angry Young Voters
Where once it predicted growth of 2 percent in 2017, with a slowdown to 1.6 percent in 2018 followed by a gradual recovery back to 2 percent growth
in 2021, the office now foresees growth of 1.5 percent in 2017, falling slightly over subsequent years and recovering only to 1.6 percent in 2022.
On Wednesday, Mr. Hammond announced that the Office for Budget Responsibility had cut its forecasts
for economic growth over the next five years, based on lower growth in productivity.
In his speech on Wednesday, Mr. Hammond promised £3 billion for Brexit preparations, in addition to £700 million already committed, adding, "No one should
doubt our resolve." On the question of housing affordability in Britain, most analysts blame a lack of supply, a view Mr. Hammond appears to accept.
Without changes, younger Britons risk becoming less prosperous than their parents’ generation for the first time since the Black Death pandemic
that ravaged the region in the Middle Ages, according to the country’s chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, who delivered his annual budget on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Mr. Hammond promised £3.75 billion more for Britain’s National Health Service over
the next three years, with the possibility of extra to cover a potential pay raise for nurses.
People’s wages and living standards revised down." Prime Minister Theresa May, now governing with the support of a small Northern Ireland party, badly needs a lift after months of infighting over Britain’s planned withdrawal from the European Union, known as Brexit,
and the resignation of two cabinet ministers in recent weeks.
