It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
On the ropes, the Government should be brave and do the big things that need to happen in the Budget, writes Edmund Greaves
It’s Budget month, the most festive time of the year for a financial hack like me.
No, not Christmas. If you start Christmas before 1 December – or at least after Black Friday – then I don’t want to hear from you.
Don’t send me your press releases (I’ve been getting festive ones since September) or pitch anything remotely with the faint sound of twinkling bells.
To the Budget and what it might contain. Rachel Reeves by some reports is supposedly considering more than one hundred tax changes. One hundred.
Never mind a Budget special, we might need a Budget changes novella over on Mouthy Money.
The rumours, reports and whisperings have now reached such a ludicrous level that we might as well just disregard all of it. It’s become Schrodinger’s Budget.
I’ve seen suggestions around pensions (and about 10 different things within pensions), ISAs, inheritance tax, council tax, welfare, income tax, national insurance thresholds, VAT, fuel duty, wealth, property, gambling, alcohol – just about anything that the state taxes now seems up for grabs.
And do you know what? I think it’s a good thing.
Instability for households and businesses aside with the uncertainty ahead of 26 November, one thing I believe very strongly is that the tax system is fundamentally troubled. Troubled by complexity, contradiction and hangovers of decades past.
A Labour Government on the ropes, with little to lose (in the polls at least) should be brave and do the big things that need to happen. Someone has to.
From council tax reform, to fixing the £100k income cliff edge; stamp duty to inheritance tax – they could all do with less complexity and more fairness.
You never know, make the pain now and the public might even thank you in four years.
What’s coming up in November 2025
So what about the rest of November. Aside from The Budget on 26 November, lots of important stuff to come.
On 6 November we’ll get the Bank of England’s latest UK interest rate decision. This is followed on 11 November by the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Market Overview.
On 13 November the ONS gives its first quarterly (Q3) estimate of GDP and monthly GDP while we’ll get the latest ONS UK monthly inflation figures on 19 November.
20 November is Equal Pay Day, organised by the Fawcett Society, marking the date when women in the UK effectively stop earning relative to men.
And finally, on 25 November Ofgem announces an update to the energy price cap (although this date is to be confirmed.)
All the best wishing you a good Budget day from MRM, Mouthy Money and Octo Members.