John Healey has just delivered the biggest Budget in recent history. The 98 policy measures on the government’s scorecard are more than any recent chancellor has unveiled before. Trouble is, in cash terms, they add up to a whole lot of nothing.

The 98 lines on the scorecard add up to £7 billion of extra spending and £7 billion of extra tax in the final year of the forecast, making the budget about a quarter as big as either of Rachel Reeves’s. There were no big surprises.

The main retail measures were relief on energy bills with an £100 payment straight to the bank accounts of everyone in England living in properties in bands A-D. The devolved nations will get cash for equivalent schemes. A bank charge, which is supposed to be temporary, will pay for it. 

But the real story is in the forecasts and the decisions Healey hasn’t made yet. 

Growth........

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