October 2024 United Kingdom budget

Last updated

30 October 2024 United Kingdom budget
Coat of arms of the United Kingdom (2022, lesser arms).svg
Parliament 59th
Party Labour Party
Chancellor Rachel Reeves
  March 2024

The October 2024 United Kingdom budget was delivered to the House of Commons by Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 30 October 2024. She is the first woman to present a UK Budget, marking the Labour Party's first Budget in over 14 years. It covered Labour's fiscal plans, with a focus on investment, healthcare, education, childcare, sustainable energy, transport, and workers' rights enrichment.

Contents

The National Minimum Wage is set to increase by 6.7% (reaching £12.21 per hour) and a £22.6 billion increase in the day-to-day health budget was announced, with a £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget. That includes £1 billion for hospital repairs and rebuilding projects. The government plans to allocate £5 billion for housing investment in the fiscal year 2025–26, with a focus on enhancing the availability of affordable housing. Education will receive £6.7 billion of capital investment, a 19% real-terms increase. This includes £1.4 billion to rebuild more than 500 schools.

Background

On 22 May 2024, the then prime minister, Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak, announced that a general election was to be held on 4 July 2024. [1] The Labour Party launched their manifesto for the election on 13 June. [2] The Conservative campaign focused primarily on attacks towards Labour over alleged tax plans including a disproven claim that Labour would cost households £2,000 more in tax. [3] [4]

Labour won a landslide victory in the election, with Keir Starmer becoming Prime Minister and Rachel Reeves becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer. On 8 July, Reeves gave her first statement as Chancellor, [5] [6] and on 29 July she confirmed 30 October as the date for the budget. [7] [8] It is the first budget presented by Reeves during her tenure as Chancellor. It also is the first Labour budget since March 2010, [9] and the first budget to be announced by a female chancellor. [10]

Inherited government debt

The chancellor alleged that the previous government had left a 'black hole' of £22 billion. This was disputed by the official spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), who said that the hidden costs from her predecessor Jeremy Hunt were £9.5 billion. [11]

Social care changes

It was decided in September 2021 by the previous government that no-one arranging support such as going in to a care home, or paying for residential care, would have to pay more than £86,000 over their lifetime in care costs. Any individuals with personal assets of less than £20,000 would not have to pay out of from those assets, with those who had assets under £100,000 (the previous level being £23,250) being eligible for a varying degree of state support, depending on how wealthy they were. These changes came in to force in October 2023. [8] [12] [13]

Budget points

The main points presented were:

Summary

Reeves announced tax rises worth £40 billion, the biggest tax rise at a budget since 1993. [28] Amongst the measures she announced were an increase in employers' National Insurance to 15% on salaries above £5,000 from April 2025, income tax thresholds to rise in-line with inflation after 2028, changes to farm inheritance tax so that rural estates above the value of £1,000,000 from April 2026 would face 20 per cent inheritance tax, and a rise in the single bus fare cap to £3 from January 2025. [14] The OBR forecast that the budget would mean the tax burden would be set to its highest ever level in recorded history. [29] The director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, accused Reeves of further undermining trust in politicians. [30] Reeves later said that it was not a budget she would want to repeat, [31] and accepted that the tax rises would likely hit wage growth for workers. [32]

Reactions

Rishi Sunak, the leader of the Conservative Party, accused the government of deceit and breaking earlier fiscal pledges. He disputed Reeves's description of a "black hole" in the budget, stating that Labour had always planned to raise taxes, and condemned the previous Labour government's record. The response prompted Victoria Atkins, in a moment of quiet to exclaim "He's wiped the floor with Rachel". [33] [34] [35]

Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, described the government’s plans on social care as “a good start” but inadequate. He also said that he thought that the budget may not offer British people "a sense of hope, urgency and the promise of a fair deal" and that more could have been done to help the more vulnerable people in society. [36] [37]

The OBR supported it and predicted 1.1% of economic growth for the next fiscal year, starting in April 2025. [38]

The director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, accused Reeves of further undermining trust in politicians. [30]

Businessman James Dyson, the founder of the Dyson company, and one of the UK's richest industrialists, said of the budget that by targeting family-owned businesses, Reeves had inflicted "an egregious act of self harm" on the economy. He said that the effect on family businesses of the changes to inheritance tax and the National Insurance increases will be to "kill entrepreneurship, snuff out wealth creation and stunt growth". [39]

Subsequent events

On 31 October, the Independent Schools Council, which represents around 1,400 private schools in the UK, voted to take legal action challenging the government's decision to end their tax exemption status from January 2025. [40]

The Office for Budget Responsibility cut its March estimates for public sector net financial liabilities (PSNFL) from £62 billion to £44 billion on 2 November. [41]

In a letter to Reeves, published on 19 November, a group of the UK's high street retailers, including Tesco and Greggs, warned the "cumulative burden" of tax rises announced in the budget, along with other policies already in the pipeline, would add billions in costs to the retail sector and put jobs at risk. [42]

Also on 19 November, several thousand people attended a protest in London over inheritance tax increases for farmers. [43] It was reported that a 78-year-old farmer had taken his own life the day before the budget, fearing tax increases. [44]

On 4 December, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecast that UK interest rates would fall less quickly over the next two years because of the measures outlined in the budget. [45]

References

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