UK Chancellor John Healey Delivers First Budget: Borrowing Share to Fall Year by Year, Minimum Wage Rises to £13.20 an Hour
British finance minister John Healey delivered his first budget in Parliament on Wednesday, October 28, built around cost-of-living relief and fiscal discipline. GSM reported earlier on Wednesday the five household measures the Treasury had announced ahead of the budget; the budget itself set out the full economic forecasts and tax-and-spending plans.
Opening his speech, Healey said: 'This is a budget for the working people of Britain, for British businesses, big and small, delivered at a time when global uncertainties and pressures are swirling worldwide and hitting people here at home. A budget built on fiscal discipline, which matches immediate action today, with clear direction for the future.' He said the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had confirmed headroom against the government's stability rule of £15 billion in 2029/30, rising to £22 billion in 2030/31, and that government borrowing would fall from 4.2% of GDP this year to 3.4% next year, 2.9% in 2028/29 and 1.8% in 2030/31 and 2031/32. The OBR forecasts the economy to grow by 1.2% this year, 1.1% next year and 1.6% in 2028. Healey said he had used some of the headroom built up last year to absorb the impact of the Iran war, to protect the economy and family budgets.
On household measures, standing charges on gas bills will be scrapped from 2027; a levy funding hydrogen projects will be removed from energy bills and shifted to general taxation; and a VAT cut on electricity bills will be extended to July, taking about £50 off the annual price cap, with households in council tax bands A–D also receiving a £100 household energy payment. The national living wage for workers aged 21 and over rises by almost 4% to £13.20 an hour, from £12.71, while the minimum wage for 18- to 21-year-olds rises to £11.27. The full state pension rises by 3.9% to £13,036 a year from next April; because that takes it above the £12,570 personal allowance, the tax-free allowance for low-income pensioners has been raised to £13,036. The 5p-a-litre cut in fuel duty is extended to July.
Healey delivered the budget against a difficult backdrop, with borrowing costs at a near 30-year high and inflation rising, and with the task of rebuilding fiscal headroom without extinguishing growth or spooking the bond markets. Reuters noted ahead of the budget that previously announced measures also included £20.4 billion of additional support over roughly half a decade for a state business lender and an infrastructure bank, and plans to cut paperwork and extend the suspension of some trade tariffs, helping businesses save almost £800 million a year.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于伦敦Westminster的英国财政部大楼。照片：Jim Osley，CC BY-SA 2.0，经Wikimedia Commons（geograph.org.uk）。
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- 2026-10-28UK Chancellor John Healey Delivers First Budget: Borrowing Share to Fall Year by Year, Minimum Wage Rises to £13.20 an HourThis story
