![\"Chancellor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_RR-2.jpg\")
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will present the Autumn Statement in November(Image: Getty)<\/p>\nThe Chancellor said \u201cof course, we\u2019re looking at tax and spending\u201d as she prepares for her November 26 statement.Chancellor Rachel Reeves will present the Autumn Statement in November(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n
Rachel Reeves has admitted she is looking at potential tax rises and spending cuts to fill a black hole in her Budget next month which she said was partly due to the lingering impact of Brexit.<\/p>\n
The Chancellor said \u201cof course, we\u2019re looking at tax and spending\u201d as she prepares for her November 26 statement.<\/p>\n
She confirmed the budget watchdog had \u201cconsistently overestimated\u201d the UK\u2019s productivity, with the expected downgrade of its previous assumptions likely to make Reeves\u2019 task even harder.<\/p>\n
With no boom in economic growth, stubbornly high inflation and the mounting costs of government debt, Reeves will have to fill a black hole estimated at around \u00a350 billion by some economists.<\/p>\n
Reeves insisted today the economy was still suffering from the impacts of leaving the European Union, austerity policies and Liz Truss\u2019s mini-budget.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Michelle Mone-linked company faces deadline day to pay back millions over Covid contract scandal<\/a>READ MORE: Neil Gray denies John Swinney plan for GP walk-in health centres is ‘pre-election stunt’<\/a><\/p>\n She said the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had carried out a review over the summer and found \u201cthey have consistently overestimated our productivity performance\u201d.<\/p>\n It was up to them to set out the reasons, she said, but \u201causterity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss\u2019s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAlready, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long lasting and that\u2019s why we are trying to do trade deals around the world, US, India, but most importantly with the EU so that our exporters here in Britain have a chance to sell things made here all around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) has suggested Ms Reeves will need to find around \u00a350 billion a year by 2029-39 to meet her goal of balancing day-to-day spending with tax revenues while maintaining \u201cheadroom\u201d of around \u00a310 billion against that target.<\/p>\n Asked if she was now in a \u201cdoom loop\u201d of having to constantly hike taxes to fill a black hole, Reeves said she would not use those words but \u201cnobody wants that cycle to end more than I do\u201d.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cChallenges are being thrown our way, whether that is the geopolitical uncertainties, the conflicts around the world, the increased tariffs and barriers to trade and now this review looking at how productive our economy has been in the past and then projecting that forward.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I won\u2019t duck those challenges. Of course, we\u2019re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as Chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances \u2013 inflation and interest rates went through the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n She said reforms to the planning system would help \u201cget back to building in Britain\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cFor too long we\u2019ve been in the slow lane of economic growth because we haven\u2019t signed off projects and if the answer to big investments in Britain is always \u2018no\u2019, we\u2019re going to carry on getting the same results in terms of poor growth and the lack of improvement in living standards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The IMF warned UK inflation is set to surge to the highest in the G7 group of developed democracies in 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n The IMF increased its UK economic growth forecast for this year but reduced its assessment for 2026 amid concerns over the labour market.<\/p>\n Britain is set to be the second fastest growing G7 country this year, the IMF also said, with only the US growing faster.<\/p>\n