Budget gives nice one-off payments but no long-term plan to bring down cost of living

People will be excited by the range of short-term, one-off payments that will make Christmas a little easier. But there's a long winter there yet

The crippling costs associated with things like childcare, insurance, and energy are having a big impact on the cost of living and will continue to long after this budget.

Trying to keep the whole country happy is never easy but Budget 2025 — aka 'the give-away budget'; aka the 'baby-boost budget' — promised to do just that.

So did it go far enough in managing growing expectation? And more importantly, did it do anything meaningful to tackle the cost of living crisis?