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Jeremy Hunt has junked almost the entirety of his predecessor鈥檚 controversial plan for growth, just days after coming into office.

Only the planned cut to stamp duty and the reversal of the recent rise in national insurance survived the new chancellor鈥檚 knife, with plans to reform IR35 and cut corporation and income tax shelved and the energy price guarantee reduced in scope. Hunt said the moves would raise an extra 拢32bn per year.

Plans to repeal the burdensome IR35 off-payroll tax rules for contractors have also been ditched, which is likely to cause consternation in the freelance-reliant construction sector.

At the time of the change to the IR35 tax last month, Construction Products Association economics director Noble Francis said the government had cost time and money with their flip-flopping on the issue.

鈥淭he time and money wasted dealing with [IR35] in 2021, when contractors had to deal with materials availability and cost, rising PI insurance and reverse charge VAT, only for IR35 changes to be repealed, is staggering,鈥� he said.

In a broadcast statement this morning, Hunt said the prime minister had 鈥渓istened to concerns about the mini-budget鈥� which had seen the pound plunge and the cost of government borrowing spiralling.

The scrapping of the 45% higher rate of income tax and the cancellation of the rise in corporation tax to 25% had already been announced when Kwasi Kwarteng was still chancellor, and the cut to the basic rate has now gone the same way.

Last week, one industry chief tore into the government鈥檚 abandoned plans to abolish the 45p rate of tax saying the original decision taken by prime minister Liz Truss and then chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng made the pair 鈥渓ook like they鈥檙e from junior school. No two sane people would have come up with such a stupid thing.鈥�

Hunt also confirmed that the government鈥檚 鈥渓andmark鈥� energy price guarantee would go ahead as planned but only until April, after which more targeted measures would be used.

A Treasury-led review will determine the details of this, with the chancellor saying that it 鈥渨ould not be responsible鈥� to expose public finance to international energy price fluctuations in the long-term.

Hunt said that 鈥済overnments cannot eliminate volatility in markets but they can play their part and we will do so鈥� and told the public to expect 鈥渕ore difficult decision on both tax and spending鈥�, with all government department needing to find savings.

Speaking before Hunt鈥檚 announcement, Mace chief executive Mark Reynolds told the BBC: 鈥淭he uncertainty [of the past few weeks] has been horrendous for most businesses. People just can鈥檛 plan for the future.鈥�

The chancellor is set to make a full fiscal statement on 31 October 鈥� which had already been moved forward from mid-November 鈥� but said he wanted to set out his plans immediately in order to 鈥渞educe unhelpful speculation鈥�.

He was given special permission from the speaker of the House of Commons to make a statement this morning, ahead of his briefing to parliament at 3.30pm this afternoon, as the government attempted to calm markets.