November 1993 United Kingdom budget

1993 (1993) United Kingdom budget

Presented	30 November 1993
Parliament	51st
Party	Conservative Party
Chancellor	Kenneth Clarke
‹ March 1993 1994›

The November 1993 United Kingdom budget (officially titled The budget of a responsible government)^[1] was delivered by Kenneth Clarke, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on 30 November 1993.^[2] It was the second budget to be presented in 1993, and the first to be presented by Clarke following his appointment as Chancellor by Prime Minister John Major earlier that year. The November 1993 budget was also the first in the modern era to be held in the autumn, the government having decided to move the date of the budget so it could outline its tax and spending plans at the same time.

Many of the measures outlined in Clarke's first budget followed through from decisions made by his predecessor, Norman Lamont, in the budget of March 1993. He announced plans to eliminate the public spending deficit by the end of the decade, and planned to raise £10.5bn over three years with a programme of tax increases and spending cuts. With VAT on domestic fuel to be raised from April 1994, he outlined details of some Social Security benefits designed to offset the impact of the increase in costs for heating and lighting. Plans to replace Unemployment Benefit with Jobseeker's Allowance were also announced, along with changes in eligibility for maternity benefit, as well as the transferring of payment of Statutory sick pay from the state to some larger employers. Plans were also announced to equalise the State Pension age to 65 beginning in 2010. The budget was welcomed by business in the City of London, but Labour Party leader John Smith, the leader of the Opposition, dismissed it as a "vicious attack on the welfare state".