New polling for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) has found that the majority of voters would prefer long-term investment over tax cuts or short-term relief measures.
Ahead of the Budget TBI asked voters how they would prefer the government to use any fiscal headroom at the Budget next week.
The majority of voters (52 per cent) said the Government should invest in long-term measures to improve the quality and efficiency of public services and preventing future crises and emergencies from happening.
This compares with 21 per cent who said the Government should invest in short term measures to tackle immediate crises and emergencies in the delivery of public services.
Only 11 per cent said the government should use the money to cut some taxes for people and businesses now.
TBI Director of Economic Policy Tom Smith said:
“Not only are tax cuts bad economic policy right now, our new polling suggests they may also be bad politics. A clear majority of voters want the government to maintain spending on public services, rather than cut taxes at the Budget.
“Our polling shows the public is not looking for spending cuts to any major public service. But according to the OBR, the government’s plans imply real term cuts of 10 per cent to some services in the four years after the election – including areas such as transport, justice, the police and housing. These cuts are severe – around half as large as the austerity period of the early 2010s – and are opposed by around four in five of the British Public.
“The debate on tax cuts is a distraction. The only sustainable path to delivering them is fundamental reform of the State and the way public services are delivered. The Budget is an opportunity to begin down that path – to make the investments needed to reposition Britain for longer term success, harnessing the rapid changes in technology to transform public services, do more for less and reimagine the State for the 21st century.
“To truly take ‘long-term decisions for a brighter future’, the Chancellor should not be looking back in history for his policy playbook – he should be looking to the future and the potential for technology to transform public services and improve the UK’s long-term prospects. This is the only route to really effective public services that also improves the public finances and opens the door for future tax cuts. Today, the majority of voters want to see any fiscal headroom spent on long-term investment, with 64 per cent of those who expressed a view agreeing that investing in new technology to improve public services should be a priority.”
The full polling is available here.
Further info
TBI commissioned Deltapoll to undertake a survey of British voters’ views on economic policy and the future of the state. Deltapoll interviewed a representative sample of 1,977 adults in Great Britain between 9 and 12 February 2024. The data have been weighted to age, gender, education, 2019 general-election vote, 2016 referendum vote, political attention, social grade and region within Great Britain.