March 1993 United Kingdom budget

March 1993 (March 1993) United Kingdom budget

Presented	16 March 1993
Parliament	51st
Party	Conservative Party
Chancellor	Norman Lamont
‹ 1992 November 1993›

The March 1993 United Kingdom budget (officially titled A budget for sustained recovery and a budget for jobs)^[1] was delivered by Norman Lamont, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on 16 March 1993.^[2] It was the third and final budget to be presented by Lamont during his tenure as chancellor, and the final spring budget to be outlined before the Conservatives unified their tax and spending plans into one budget statement.

Lamont introduced a series of phased tax increases, including announcing a VAT levy of 8% on domestic fuel from 1 April 1994, which would be raised to 17.5% the next year, as well as making changes to income tax and raising the stamp duty threshold. March 1993 also marks the first occasion on which a chancellor cited the environment as a reason for raising taxes, but this failed to convince green campaigners the tax raises were justified. John Smith, the leader of the Opposition Labour Party, dismissed the budget as "a shameful budget from a cynical government that has broken its election promises". Prime Minister John Major described it as "the right budget, at the right time, from the right chancellor" before replacing Lamont a few weeks later with Kenneth Clarke.