ANOTHER month goes by with no sign of the promised growth from the Government and the culprit is looking more and more like the Chancellor’s Halloween Budget.
No wonder she was crying recently in Prime Minister’s Questions.
Every day we hear of businesses closing, jobs being lost and wealthy people are fleeing abroad, taking all their taxes with them.
As a member of the Treasury Select Committee and a Shadow Business Minister, I scrutinise the work of our beleaguered Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves.
Following on from her dreadful Autumn Budget which slapped £25billion of tax rises on our wealth-creating businesses, last month she was forced to reverse one of the worst decisions she made.
I know pensioners – some of whom live on incomes as low as £1,000 a month – will have welcomed her reversal of the chilling political decision to remove winter fuel payments, but it was too little, too late for those people who had to shiver through winter last year.
The June 2025 Spending Review confirmed that in order to pay for higher defence spending and more money for doctors and nurses, the Chancellor slashed a range of public service spending plans.
Worcestershire’s local transport budget was cut back sharply from £209million down to £74million over the next five years. That will mean long-term projects like the doubling of the North Cotswold Line may need to be shelved for a generation.
Because of Tenbury Wells, I’m still acutely concerned about the future of flood defence capital spending and I asked Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury for clarity on whether the three-year £4.2billion fund has already been earmarked, and why the 10-year budget for flood defences is £7.9billion which sounds to me like a large drop after year three. He didn’t know the answer but has promised to write and I promise to keep pressing for an answer.
The high tax Chancellor brought no good news for the owners of family businesses including farmers who are dreading the changes to Inheritance Tax.
And with unemployment rising and inflation above its two per cent target, many businesses are reporting to me that they have put investment plans on hold, something that has been made worse by the Family Business Tax.
Week after week, I talk to local people who are worried about the future. Teachers and parents worried about future school budgets, everyone is worried about the rising cost of food and living expenses.
Many will welcome the increase in defence spending, living in these uncertain times, but none of us are confident the Chancellor won’t be bringing more taxes and more bad news in the Autumn Budget.
Dame Harriett Baldwin
MP for West Worcestershire
