Budget 2025: What measures might the Chancellor introduce?

In exactly two week, Rachel Reeves will deliver her second Budget. The Chancellor has said she will “deal with the world as I find it, not the world as I might wish it to be.”

This is an attempt to set the tone for the upcoming Budget. Whether it is one that will go down well with Labour folks or not remains to be seen.

But speculation remains rife as to what exact measures she will announce at the dispatch box on November 26.

Here are some policies she might announce based on ongoing news reports.

‘Read my lips’

If there’s one lingering question over the upcoming Budget, it’s not whether HMT will raise taxes,  it’s how.

Think tank after think tank has projected inevitable tax rises if Rachel Reeves wants to keep to her vaunted fiscal rules.

But it would mean breaking a crucial election pledge if Labour were to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT.

If this happens, the Chancellor will need to have a good answer as to why that promise was broken.

What’s happening with ISAs?

This one has seen a bit of to-ing and thro-ing.

ISAs have long been a popular option for savers, but the Chancellor has floated the prospect of lowering the tax-free allowance on Cash ISAs to encourage more people to invest in stocks and shares.

Whether this will happen has long been a matter of debate – although more recent noises have suggested something to this end.

Gambling tax

This has been one of the most popular potential measures floated.

A tax on gambling companies has long been called for by campaign groups, and the upcoming Budget is likely to see such policies floated.

But don’t expect it to come without backlash. Nigel Farage has put his name to a Sun campaign opposing the measure.

Something more positive?

Could we finally see the two-child benefit cap eased? That’s been one of the main focal points in progressive circles.

Certainly, lifting the cap has been projected to lift child poverty by measurable sums, including by the Resolution Foundation – considered to be close to the Treasury and previously run by Pensions Minister Torsten Bell.

Labour members want to see it junked, but opinion polling stands against it, with surveys showing the public support the cap as it is.

Perhaps this is where there is scope for Labour to make the case for scrapping it.

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