The 2024 Autumn Budget, bolstered by the accompanying OBR economic outlook, has exposed the Government’s blatant disregard for sound fiscal principles, opting instead for tax hikes, spiralling borrowing, and policies destined to impede growth.
This budget is not just an exercise in fiscal irresponsibility but a roadblock to prosperity, laying heavy burdens on British businesses and families while failing to address the core issue of high immigration levels.
This budget is an assault on British workers, an assault on growth and an assault on our great farmers.
Labour setting the inheritance threshold at £1 million is a blatant attack on British farmers. It will force countless farming families to sell after a death, against their wishes – ruining continuity and heritage. This will cause irreversible damage to our rural communities.
This chaotic fiscal vision, veiled as stability, will serve only to tighten the economic chokehold on hard-working taxpayers, hobble the country’s growth prospects, and balloon national debt.
A budget should support the creators of wealth, not penalise them. Yet, the Government’s tax policies are set to reach an unprecedented 38% of GDP by 2029–30, per the OBR forecast.
This historic tax burden will be borne not by the bureaucrats but by Britain’s businesses and workers, who will see higher National Insurance Contributions (NICs) with reduced thresholds and VAT applied to previously exempt sectors.
Employer NICs are slated to rise to 15%, alongside a decrease in the threshold, compounding payroll costs that businesses will be forced to pass onto workers or mitigate through job cuts and wage freezes.
Tax hikes on assets, further capital taxes, and compliance measures are expected to bring in over £36 billion annually, all to fuel a government that seems insatiable in its hunger for spending. This budget’s fixation on tax-and-spend policies is as detrimental as it is short-sighted.
The Government’s solution to stagnant economic growth appears to be the flawed idea that more borrowing equals prosperity.
The OBR projects a borrowing increase of nearly £32 billion annually over the next five years, with debt reaching an unsustainable 97% of GDP.
Instead of reining in spending, this government is throwing taxpayer money at their own white elephant projects and so-called public investments without accountability, bypassing any measures of true productivity.
This approach risks mortgaging future generations to fund today’s political agenda. There is no regard for the future taxpayers who will bear the cost of this borrowing bender, further exacerbating the country’s debt burden, with interest rates remaining volatile amid inflationary pressures.
This budget’s tax and borrowing strategy promises to stymie economic growth. Rather than fostering an environment for business expansion and job creation, the government is enacting policies that will, by the OBR’s admission, crowd out private investment.
Private consumption and business investment, according to the OBR, are projected to fall relative to government consumption, with output stagnating at a level below its potential.
Increased public spending will absorb capital, leaving little room for private sector dynamism. The prospect of Britain’s economic growth is dim, with a forecasted rate that struggles to exceed 1.5% over the next five years, barely enough to keep pace with inflation.
This budget is nothing short of an economic straightjacket on the private sector, with higher taxes discouraging risk-taking and investment while bloating an already cumbersome public sector.
The so-called “sin taxes” in this budget are punitive, regressive, and emblematic of a government obsessed with controlling the choices of the public.
Duties on alcohol and Air Passenger Duty (APD) hikes are set to drain consumer pockets, thinly veiled as ‘fairness’ measures while disproportionately impacting middle-income Britons.
The VAT extension to private education illustrates a deep-seated hostility towards personal choice. Such measures are expected to raise consumer prices, further eroding purchasing power and suppressing demand.
These “sin taxes” will do little to improve public health or social welfare but will erode the liberties of individuals and penalise personal consumption choices.
As if these domestic economic failings were not enough, the Government’s failure to reduce net immigration levels underscores its disregard for the country’s fiscal and social strain. Current net migration figures are still projected at 315,000 annually – a rate that remains unsustainable.
High immigration inflates the population artificially, straining public services, housing, and infrastructure. Instead of addressing the underlying issues and adjusting immigration policies to support sustainable growth, this government is ignoring one of the most pressing factors affecting the fiscal landscape and the quality of life of its citizens.
The Autumn Budget 2024 is an ideological gamble, a road to ruin paved with high taxes, endless borrowing, and economic mismanagement.
This Government has opted for a tax-and-spend approach that sacrifices economic stability and growth for unsustainable state expansion.
By tightening the fiscal noose on wealth creators, crowding out private investment, and dismissing the critical issue of high immigration, this administration is steering Britain toward a financial precipice.
Instead of lifting the burdens on taxpayers and business owners, it piles on more – ensuring that economic growth remains sluggish, debt piles up, and the aspirations of Britons are weighed down by an ever-increasing tax burden and a bloated state.
This budget is not a path to stability but a recipe for fiscal decay. The right choice would be to reverse these damaging policies before they inflict irreversible harm on our nation’s economic future.
This was Labour’s opportunity to prove us wrong and attempt to restore faith in our government. They could have easily done this by incentivizing wealth creation, slashing government waste and lowering taxes.
Instead they have hammered hard working British people with the highest tax raising budget in history.
By contrast, Reform UK wants to prioritise and reward hard working British people above all else.
For years, both Labour and the Tories have repeatedly failed to uphold their promises to the British people.
This is a pattern that Reform UK pledges to end. We are the party that stands for this country and its core beliefs. We are the party that believes in the success of Great Britain domestically and on the world stage. We will save this country.
Richard Tice is deputy leader of Reform
