As Philip Hammond prepares to deliver the Autumn Budget later this afternoon, the City is waiting with bated breath to see if he will up taxes or raid high earners’ pension savings to pay for the government’s promised “end to austerity”.

The UK chancellor faces a complex balancing act. A revision of official economic statistics last week handed him an unexpected £13bn windfall, but spending demands from health and welfare are still pressing, and the need to put aside rainy-day money has to be weighed against the risk of a disorderly Brexit.