Finance minister Reeves says UK faces more challenges since budget last year

Finance Minister Rachel Reeves said on Tuesday Britain had faced increasing challenges since her first budget last year, as questions grow over which taxes she will raise to keep her budget on track.

"Since that budget, the world has thrown even more challenges our way," Reeves said in a pre-budget speech.

She said these challenges included the continual threats of tariffs which deterred investments and dampened growth. She also said inflation had been too slow to fall and global borrowing costs had risen.

The minister said she would do what is necessary, not popular, to protect families as she takes her decision on whether to increase taxes at the November 26 budget.

She said she would not return to a policy of austerity that was pursued from 2010 following the global financial crisis.

She added she would set out the policy choices on November 26, when asked about breaking manifesto promises.

She said her November 26 budget would focus on growth, including reforms to the business rates system aimed at easing pressure on physical shops and small businesses. "The current business rate system was designed for a previous age, not for a digital age," Reeves, in a rare pre-budget speech, said. "And so we've been reforming the business rate system to hopefully give a bit more comfort to small businesses and high street businesses as well."

Reeves said the nation was still paying the price for damage from Liz Truss's mini-budget.

The whole point of decisions in this budget is to make decisions in the future easier, she said.