Darling to raise taxes by £9bn in Budget - papers 1 Feb

The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the public finances were in "rather poor shape" and said the Government would need a major tax hike in order to stay within its self-imposed fiscal rules following the Budget, which the Treasury said yesterday would be unveiled on 12 March. However, the NIESR called on Mr Darling to resist the temptation to raise taxes and instead revise its "inflexible", "badly designed" and "discredited" fiscal framework to avoid damaging the economy. The think tank's warning follows a very similar alert from the Institute for Fiscal...