Truss plans to publish alternative Budget

Liz Truss is set to challenge the chancellor by publishing an alternative Budget. The Growth Commission, the think tank set up by the former prime minister, will release a report called The growth budget a week before the chancellor delivers his Autumn Statement on 22 November. It is expected to propose policy on corporation tax, income tax and national insurance – including how the “tourism tax” could be dropped by bringing back VAT-free shopping. Truss has also said 500,000 homes need to be built a year and suggested environmental protections could be torn up to encourage building. The announcement of the alternative Budget comes just over a year after Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, which spooked the markets and punched a £30bn hole in government finances. The Times (£)