内容摘要：Ms Powell repeated Labour's long-standing commitment not to raise income tax, National Insurance and VAT, including reversing National Insurance cuts brought in recently by the Conservatives.

Ms Powell repeated Labour's long-standing commitment not to raise income tax, National Insurance and VAT, including reversing National Insurance cuts brought in recently by the Conservatives.

As it stands, investment spending is set to decline relative to the size of the economy. Restoring that would need roughly an extra £20bn.In an attempt to keep the markets calm, Reeves has promised limits on the speed and extent of investment spending.

Yet that leaves a multi-billion pound problem to solve. On current plans, many public services are facing squeezed budgets for day-to-day spending.Alleviating that and fulfilling the government’s other manifesto priorities is still likely to mean tax rises,. The Labour government hopes to raise £9bn from measures included in its manifesto, but the rest has yet to be spelled out.

Even with a Budget rules hack, there will be winners and losers, determined by the chancellor. The rest of us may have to wait until 30 October to discover which camp we’re in.The prime minister has appeared to dismiss suggestions the government could raise capital gains tax (CGT) as high as 39% in this month's Budget.

Sir Keir Starmer said such speculation was "wide of the mark", although he did not elaborate further.

For higher earners, the levy is currently 24% on gains from selling additional property, or 20% on profits from other assets like shares.She said increasing the council tax to 9. 99% as a one-off would actually help "make sure that we save the council taxpayers £111m worth of borrowing over the next 20 years".

"We're already trying to reduce that borrowing to make it more manageable, not just for now, not just for next year, but for our children and our grandchildren," she said.She said the tax made a "huge contribution" and the council was between a "rock and a hard place".

"We don't want to do this increase in council tax, but we know it's the right thing to do, not just for now, but for the future."Spaces at allotments have been made available because of "constant demand" for plots.