What with a freezing of the inheritance tax thresholds and a slashing of both the capital gains tax and dividend allowances already earmarked for April 6, Hunt has already played his cards.
Although tax receipts have been healthy in recent months, I just can’t see Hunt overturning any of his Autumn Statement measures.
Prudence will prevail, which means nothing but hardship for most of us.
Maybe the only wriggle room Hunt has is on corporation tax. Some of the country’s top businesses have already told the government that it needs to reverse the plan to increase corporation tax from 19 to 25 per cent from the start of the new tax year.
A failure to do so, they say, will throttle any prospect of the UK economy going into strong recovery mode – as businesses rein back on their investment plans.
I trust Hunt will listen to these calls. They are genuine. They are heartfelt. They should be heard.
Are there any glimmers of light we can cling on to? A new Northern Ireland Brexit deal? Possibly.
A robust UK stock market, up nearly 5 per cent this year and more than 6 per cent higher than this time last year? Yes, good news for our pensions and our Isas, but hardly enough to ameliorate the harmful impact of inflation on our finances.
Whether a change of government will make things any better, I’m not so sure. But we certainly haven’t progressed as a country since the Conservatives came into power in 2010.
In the financial space I write in, good news is in short supply. Maybe I’m too much of a pessimist (the DNA of journalists is immersed in pessimism), but the future doesn’t look good.
If you disagree, send me a cheerful email. It would make my day. Reasons to be cheerful; I need to hear them. And not just from Ian Dury and The Blockheads. Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part Four.
Jeff Prestridge is group wealth & personal finance editor at DMGT
