What to expect from Rachel Reeves’s budget and how far it will be felt

British Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her budget on Wednesday after a whirlwind of speculation about which taxes she will increase.

If the budget hits the wrong note, Britons who have set up a new life in the UAE may find even more of their compatriots deciding it is time to move.

Ahead of the statement in the House of Commons, she promised to “push ahead with the biggest drive for growth in a generation”, and insisted she would not “lose control of public spending”.

Ms Reeves said she would “take the fair and necessary choices to deliver on our promise of change”.

Her three priorities for the budget would be cutting the cost of living, cutting NHS waiting lists alongside delivering public service reforms, and starting to reduce the cost of public debt.

Many likely changes have already been trailed as the government tested the water to see how they would be received.

The Chancellor will seek to fill a black hole in the public finances and build up a buffer so she does not have to keep coming back for more taxpayers’ cash.

What is likely to have made the cut?

Mansion tax: A new levy could be applied to some of the nation's most valuable homes in what has been dubbed a “mansion tax”.

The move would reportedly revalue properties across top council tax bands F, G and H and hit 100,000 of them with a new surcharge worth an average of £4,500, with the threshold starting at £2 million. However, caveats might mean the charge is only payable when a property is sold or the owner dies.

The mansion tax idea seems to have come to the fore instead of changes to stamp duty, which is levied on property purchases. Mansion tax had been mooted as a replacement, with stamp duty abolished, but that now seems unlikely. Prime real estate agents have told The National that the potential tax changes affecting property have had an impact on the market, with some high-end buyers holding off in the hope that stamp duty will be scrapped, while others try to get deals over the line before any changes come into force.

Estate agent's boards in London. Budget speculation is fuelling uncertainty across much of the property market. PA

International student tax: Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled proposals this year for universities to pay a six per cent tax for international students. This is expected to be confirmed in the budget, raising an additional £760 million each year.

Universities have warned it would erase the revenue from a rise in how much they can charge to study, with fees increasing in September for the first time in a decade, to £9,535. Vivienne Stern, the chief executive of Universities UK, said a student tax would be “beyond disappointing”.

Labour’s planned tax on foreign students would deepen the financial crisis engulfing UK universities, the sector has claimed. There are also concerns that it would damage university towns.

“Many universities may be small in national terms,