REWARD
Reflecting on Reeves ’ s first budget
A fter months of speculation, Rachel Reeves finally delivered her first budget on 30 October 2024. Even before she stood up in Parliament, the budget was set to be memorable. After 800 years, Reeves made history becoming the UK’s first female chancellor. The historic nature of the speech wasn’t lost on Reeves, either. She started by expressing her pride at taking this position and used the occasion to encourage girls and women to “let there be no ceiling on your ambition, your hopes and your dreams”. A tough budget The budget itself lived up to its billing. After weeks of repeated statements from the chancellor and the prime minister that this was going to be a “tough budget”. Going in with those words of comfort, no one was expecting giveaways and plenty of rabbits being pulled from hats. And, sure enough, it was a tough business for some employers. But there were hardly any surprises. Even somebody with only a passing interest in the budget would have felt fully briefed of the changes weeks ahead of the actual speech due to the constant speculation. Virtually all the rabbits were out of the hat. Restricted by Labour’s manifesto pledge not to increase national insurance (NI), value-added tax and income tax, Reeves turned her attention to capital gains tax, inheritance tax and the non-domicile regime to find £40bn to balance the books.
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | December 2024 - January 2025 | Issue 106 53
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