Does Jeremy Hunt have the cash to spend on tax cuts in his spring Budget next week? That’s the billion pound question that the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) focused on during its pre-Budget briefing this morning, hosted by Director Paul Johnson and Deputy Director Carl Emmerson.

As Ross Clark notes on Coffee House, the latest rumours suggest that the Chancellor is pivoting away from an income tax, inheritance tax or stamp duty cut (the last of which is considered most desirable by economists, including those over at the IFS, due to how badly it distorts the housing market and weighs down...