{"id":803463,"date":"2026-10-15T14:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T14:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/803463\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T14:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T14:34:15","slug":"john-healey-vows-to-give-breathing-space-to-consumers-and-businesses-in-first-budget-john-healey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/803463\/","title":{"rendered":"John Healey vows to give \u2018breathing space\u2019 to consumers and businesses in first budget | John Healey"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Healey has promised to use his first budget in a fortnight\u2019s time to offer consumers and businesses a \u201cbreathing space\u201d while sticking to Labour\u2019s fiscal rules.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists in Bangkok, where he has been attending the International Monetary Fund annual meetings, the chancellor said he was conscious of rising costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the budget to be a budget that gives Britain a bit of breathing space \u2013 but also reinforces the strength of our fiscal plans and the strength of our resilience and our economy for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The government has already cut VAT on electricity bills<\/a>, but Healey is expected to announce a further package of energy support at his 28 October tax and spending statement, before what is expected to be a sharp rise in the energy price cap in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe prime minister\u2019s talked about recognising the cost of business, not just the cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healey also reiterated his insistence that he would be sticking to the spending plans set out by his predecessor Rachel Reeves at last year\u2019s spending review \u2013 and that cabinet colleagues would have to find any additional resources within their existing budgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the second half of a spending review is in place, there are pressures on departments, and colleagues are doing a good job of managing with what they\u2019ve got,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cYou have to reprioritise if you want to do fresh things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK has been praised by the IMF this week for setting out a plan to tackle its deficit, with the fund\u2019s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, urging the government to \u201cstay the course\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Healey stressed he would stick to the rules set out by Reeves<\/a>. \u201cWe will meet those fiscal rules, and I think one of the hallmarks of the IMF\u2019s backing of our fiscal plans is recognition that there isn\u2019t just a forecast for the future, but there\u2019s some evidence of performance already.\u201d<\/p>\n

He declined to say whether he would increase taxes on banks, or raise capital gains tax, to offset the expected pressure on his budget from higher energy prices and government borrowing costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think back to the run-up to previous budgets, the speculation about what was set to be in those budgets was actually deeply damaging,\u201d he said. \u201cIt led to people cashing in their pensions early when they didn\u2019t need to. It led to people holding back or not investing in their businesses when they didn\u2019t need to. So I\u2019m just not going to get drawn into any speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every weekday<\/p>\n

Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n

Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Healey, a former defence secretary, also hinted he was working on an additional package of support for Ukraine, to be announced at the budget.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m working on different ways we can step up support for Ukraine: military, diplomatic and economic, and you know, if anybody needed any reminder of that, it\u2019s what we see coming out of Ukraine, with [Vladimir] Putin targeting these energy systems with thousands without power, as we\u2019ve got a harsh winter approaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe step back from this is that the future of Ukraine is the future of European security, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s so crucial that Putin doesn\u2019t prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healey and the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, chaired a meeting of G20 policymakers on Thursday morning, in the absence of the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent.<\/p>\n

The chancellor will fly back to London on Thursday evening to put the finishing touches to the budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Healey has promised to use his first budget in a fortnight\u2019s time to offer consumers and businesses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-803463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}