For private clients, this Budget was ‘one of the most disturbing of recent times’, writes Robert Field.
The Daily Telegraph hailed the Budget as ‘Victory: George delivers’. However moving away from the headline grabbing announcements of improvements to ISA accounts (annual investment limit raised to £15 000 and greater flexibility) pension funds (releasing savers from the shackles of the annuity industry) and beer duty this has been one of the most disturbing Budgets of recent times.
Three policy drivers seem to stand out that will impact for years to come on private individuals one of them making a possibly unconstitutional attack on the freedom of the citizen. First it has been apparent for some time that under the guise of stamping out the avoidance of SDLT the government...
