Ministers will not shake up council tax bands to fill a black hole in the public finances, The i Paper has been told.

Rachel Reeves is on track to miss her fiscal rules by £41.2bn because of higher-than-expected borrowing, weak growth, and the U-turn on welfare cuts , the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has predicted.

The Chancellor’s self-imposed rules state that she will not borrow to cover day-to-day spending (as opposed to long-term investments) and will reduce debt as a proportion of the country’s gross domestic product over the coming years. Day-to-day expenditure should be on track to be met by tax revenues by 2029-30.

To fill the hole, NIESR urged Reeves to implement “a moderate but sustained increase in taxes ”, which it said should includ

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