Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves 2024 Budget in full
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00:00:00On 4 July, the country voted for change. This Government were given a mandate to restore
00:00:25stability to our economy and to begin a decade of national renewal, to fix the foundations
00:00:36and deliver change, through responsible leadership in the national interest. That is our task
00:00:45and I know that we can achieve it.
00:00:49My belief in Britain burns brighter than ever and the prize on offer is immense. As my right
00:00:57honourable friend the Prime Minister said on Monday, change must be felt. More pounds
00:01:04in people's pockets, an NHS that is there when you need it, an economy that is growing,
00:01:14creating wealth and opportunity for all, because that is the only way to improve living
00:01:21standards, and the only way to drive economic growth is to invest, invest, invest. There
00:01:33are no shortcuts and to deliver that investment we must restore economic stability and turn
00:01:41the page on the last 14 years.
00:01:48This is not the first time that it has fallen to the Labour party to rebuild Britain. In
00:01:571945, it was the Labour party that rebuilt our country from the rubble of the second
00:02:07world war. In 1964, it was the Labour party that rebuilt Britain with the white heat of
00:02:14technology. And in 1997, it was the Labour party that rebuilt our schools and hospitals.
00:02:25Today it falls to this Labour party, to this Labour government, to rebuild Britain once
00:02:32again. And while this is the first Budget in more than 14 years to be delivered by a
00:02:41Labour Chancellor, it is the first Budget in our country's history to be delivered
00:02:47by a woman. I am deeply proud to be Britain's first ever female Chancellor of the Exchequer.
00:03:00To girls and young women everywhere, I say, let there be no ceiling on your ambition,
00:03:08your hopes and your dreams. And along with the pride that I feel standing here today,
00:03:16there is also a responsibility to pass on a fairer society and a stronger generation
00:03:23to the next generation of women.
00:03:27Madam Deputy Speaker, the party opposite failed our country. Their austerity broke our National
00:03:36Health Service. Their Brexit deal harmed British businesses. And their mini-Budget left families
00:03:44paying the price with higher mortgages. The British people have inherited their failure,
00:03:56a black hole in the public finances, public services on their knees, a decade of low growth
00:04:05and the worst Parliament on record for living standards.
00:04:11Let me begin with the public finances. In July, I exposed a £22 billion black hole
00:04:17at the heart of the previous Government's plans, a series of promises that they made
00:04:25but had no money to deliver, covered up from the British people, covered up from this House.
00:04:32The Treasury's reserve, set aside for genuine emergencies, spent three times over, just
00:04:39three months into the financial year. Today, on top of the detailed document that I provided
00:04:46to the House in July, the Government are publishing a line-by-line breakdown of the £22 billion
00:04:53black hole that we inherited. It shows hundreds of unfunded pressures on the public finances
00:05:06this year and into the future too. The Office for Budget Responsibility has published its
00:05:13own review of the circumstances around the spring budget forecast. It says that the previous
00:05:20Government
00:05:21did not provide the OBR with all the information to them. Have they known about the undisclosed
00:05:35pressures that have since come to light, then their spring budget forecast for spending
00:05:39would have been, and I quote again,
00:05:41materially different. Let me be clear. That means any comparison between today's forecast
00:05:50and the OBR's March forecast is false, because the party opposite hid the reality of their
00:05:57public spending plans. Yet, at the very same budget, they made another £10 billion worth
00:06:06of cuts to national insurance. It was the height of irresponsibility, and they knew
00:06:13it because they had run out of road and called an election to avoid making difficult choices.
00:06:23Let me make this promise to the British people. Never again will we allow a Government to
00:06:30play fast and loose with our public finances, and never again will we allow a Government
00:06:37to hide the true state of our public finances from our independent forecaster. That is why
00:06:43today I can confirm that we will implement in full the 10 recommendations from the independent
00:06:50Office for Budget Responsibility's review.
00:06:54But the country has inherited not just broken public finances, but broken public services
00:07:00too. The British people can see and they can feel that in their everyday lives. NHS waiting
00:07:08lists are at record levels. Children in porter cabins as school roofs crumble. Trains that
00:07:19do not arrive. Drivers filled with polluted waste. Prisons overflowing. Crimes which are
00:07:26not investigated, and criminals who are not punished. That is the country's inheritance
00:07:35from the party opposite. But they had no plan to improve our public services, and they had
00:07:43no plan to put our public finances on a stable footing. Quite the opposite. Since 2021, there
00:07:53have been no detailed plans for departmental spending set out beyond this year. Their plans
00:07:59relied on a baseline for spending this year, which we now know was wrong, because it did
00:08:06not take into account the £22 billion black hole. The previous Government also failed
00:08:15to budget for costs that they knew would materialise. That includes funding for vital compensation
00:08:22schemes for victims of two terrible injustices. I just mentioned respecting colleagues. The
00:08:43public are watching and they want to hear what the Chancellor has to say. Simmer down.
00:08:50I would politely suggest that hon. Members listen to this, because it includes funding
00:08:55for vital compensation schemes for victims of two terrible injustices—the infected
00:09:00blood scandal and the Post Office Horizon scandal. The Leader of the Opposition rightly
00:09:08made an unequivocal apology for the injustice of the infected blood scandal on behalf of
00:09:13the British state, but he did not budget for the costs of compensation. Today, for
00:09:20the very first time, we will provide specific funding to compensate those infected and those
00:09:27affected in full, with £11.8 billion in this Budget. I am also today setting aside £1.8
00:09:38billion to compensate victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal—a redress that is
00:09:44long overdue for the pain and injustice that they have suffered.
00:09:52The leadership campaign for the party opposite has now been going on for over three months,
00:09:57but in all that time there has been not one single apology for what it did to our country,
00:10:06because the Conservative party has not changed. This is a changed Labour party, and we will
00:10:13restore stability to our country once again. The scale and seriousness of the situation
00:10:20that we have inherited cannot be underestimated. Together, the hole in our public finances
00:10:26this year, which recurs every year, the compensation schemes that they did not fund, and their
00:10:33failure to assess the scale of the challenges facing our public services means that this
00:10:38Budget raises taxes by £40 billion. Any Chancellor standing here today would have to face this
00:10:47reality, and any responsible Chancellor would take action. That is why today I am restoring
00:10:57stability to our public finances and rebuilding our public services.
00:11:05As a former economist at the Bank of England, I know what it means to respect our economic
00:11:11institutions. I want to put on record my thanks to the Governor of the Bank, Andrew Bailey,
00:11:20and to the Independent Monetary Policy Committee. Today I can confirm that we will maintain
00:11:25the MPC's target of 2% inflation, as measured by the 12-month increase in the consumer prices
00:11:32index. I want to thank James Bowler, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, and my team of
00:11:38officials. I would also like to thank my predecessors as Chancellor of the Exchequer for their wise
00:11:45counsel as I have prepared for this Budget. In particular, I would like to thank the former
00:11:50right hon. Member for Spellthorne for his invaluable advice in this weekend's papers,
00:11:56where he concluded that his mini-Budget was not perfect. For once, I think he and I are
00:12:09in absolute agreement. Finally, I want to thank Richard Hughes and his team at the Office
00:12:17for Budget Responsibility for their work in preparing today's economic and fiscal
00:12:22outlook. Let me now take the House through that forecast.
00:12:27The cost-of-living crisis under the last Government stretched household finances to their limit,
00:12:32with inflation hitting a peak of above 11%. Today, the OBR says that CPI inflation will
00:12:40average 2.5% this year, 2.6% in 2025, 2.3% in 2026, 2.1% in 2027, 2.1% in 2028 and 2.0%
00:12:56in 2029.
00:12:59Next I move on to economic growth. Today's Budget marks an end to short-termism, so I
00:13:06am pleased that for the first time the OBR has published not only five-year growth forecasts
00:13:12but a detailed assessment of the growth impacts of our policies over the next decade or two.
00:13:19The new Charter for Budget Responsibility, which I am publishing today, confirms that
00:13:24this will become a permanent feature of our framework. The OBR forecasts that real GDP
00:13:30growth will be 1.1% in 2024, 2.0% in 2025, 1.8% in 2026, 1.5% in 2027, 1.5% in 2028 and
00:13:441.6% in 2029. The OBR is clear that this Budget will permanently increase the supply capacity
00:13:52of the economy, boosting long-term growth. Every Budget that I deliver will be focused
00:14:10on our mission to grow the economy, and underpinning that mission are the seven key pillars of
00:14:16our growth strategy, developed and delivered alongside business, all driven forward by
00:14:23our excellent Financial Secretary to the Treasury. First and most important is to restore economic
00:14:30stability. That is my focus today. Second, increasing investment and building new infrastructure
00:14:37is vital for productivity, so we are catalysing £70 billion of investment through our national
00:14:44wealth fund and transforming our planning rules to get Britain building again. Third,
00:14:51to ensure that all parts of the UK can realise their potential, we are working with the devolved
00:14:56Governments and partnering with our mayors to develop local growth plans. Fourth, to
00:15:02improve employment prospects and skills, we are creating Skills England, delivering our
00:15:07plans to make work pay and tackling economic inactivity. Fifth, we are launching our long-term
00:15:15modern industrial strategy and expanding opportunities for our small and medium-sized businesses
00:15:20to grow. Sixth, to drive innovation, we are protecting record funding for research and
00:15:26development to harness the full potential of the UK's science base. Finally, to maximise
00:15:32the growth benefits of our clean energy mission, we have confirmed key investments such as
00:15:37carbon capture and storage to create jobs in our industrial heartlands. Our approach
00:15:43is already having an impact. Just two weeks ago, we delivered an international investment
00:15:48summit which saw businesses commit £63.5 billion of investment into our country, creating
00:15:56nearly 40,000 jobs across the United Kingdom, but we cannot undo 14 years of damage in one
00:16:03go. Economic growth will be our mission for the duration of this Parliament.
00:16:12In our manifesto, we set out the fiscal rules that would guide this Government. I am confirming
00:16:17those today—our stability rule and our investment rule. The stability rule means that we will
00:16:24bring the current Budget into balance so that we do not borrow to fund day-to-day spending.
00:16:33We will meet this rule in 2029-30, until that becomes the third year of the forecast. From
00:16:39then on, we will balance the current Budget in the third year of every Budget held annually
00:16:44each autumn. That will provide a tougher constraint on day-to-day spending, so that difficult
00:16:50decisions cannot be constantly delayed or deferred. The OBR says that the current Budget
00:16:57will be in deficit by £26.2 billion in 2025-26 and £5.2 billion in 2026-27, before moving
00:17:07into surplus of £10.9 billion in 2027-28, £9.3 billion in 2028-29 and £9.9 billion
00:17:18in 2029-30—meeting our stability rule two years early. Monthly public sector finance
00:17:27data show that Government borrowing in the first six months of this year was already
00:17:32running significantly higher than the OBR's March forecast, so the OBR confirmed today
00:17:38that borrowing in this financial year is now £127 billion, reflecting the inheritance
00:17:44left by the party opposite. The increase in the net cash requirement in 2024-25 is
00:17:53lower than the increase in borrowing, at £22.3 billion higher than the spring forecast.
00:18:00Because of the action that we are taking, borrowing falls from 4.5% of GDP this year
00:18:06to 2.1% of GDP by the end of the forecast. Public sector net borrowing will be £105.6
00:18:13billion in 2025-26, £88.5 billion in 2026-27, £72.2 billion in 2027-28, £71.9 billion
00:18:26in 2028-29 and £70.6 billion in 2029-30.
00:18:34Before I come to tax, it is vital that we are driving efficiency and reducing wasteful
00:18:40spending. In July, to begin delivering and dealing with our inheritance, I made £5.5
00:18:47billion of savings this year. Today, we are setting a 2% productivity, efficiency and
00:18:53savings target for all departments to meet next year by using technology more effectively
00:18:59and joining up services across Government. As set out in our manifesto, I will shortly
00:19:05be appointing our Covid corruption commissioner. He will lead our work to uncover those companies
00:19:14that used a national emergency to line their own pockets, because that money belongs in
00:19:20our public services and taxpayers want that money back. I can confirm today that David
00:19:26Goldstone has been appointed as the chair of the new Office for Value for Money to help
00:19:31us realise the benefits from every pound of public spending.
00:19:36Today, I am also taking three steps to ensure that welfare spending is more sustainable.
00:19:43First, we inherited the last Government's plans to reform the work capability assessment.
00:19:49We will deliver those savings as part of our fundamental reforms to the health and disabilities
00:19:54benefits system that my right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary will bring
00:19:59forward. Second, I can today announce a crackdown on fraud in our welfare system, often the
00:20:05work of criminal gangs. We will expand DWP's counter-fraud teams, using innovative new
00:20:12methods to prevent illegal activity, and provide new legal powers to crack down on fraudsters,
00:20:18including direct access to bank accounts to recover debt. This package saves £4.3 billion
00:20:25a year by the end of the forecast. Third, the Government will shortly be publishing
00:20:31the Get Britain Working white paper, tackling the root causes of inactivity with an integrated
00:20:37approach across health, education and welfare. We will provide £240 million for 16 trailblazer
00:20:46projects targeted at those who are economically inactive and most at risk of being out of
00:20:52education, employment or training, to get people into work and to reduce the benefits bill.
00:20:58Before a Government could consider any change to a tax rate or threshold, it must ensure
00:21:05that people pay what they already owe. So we will invest to modernise HMRC systems using
00:21:12the very best technology, and recruit additional HMRC compliance and debt staff. We will clamp
00:21:19down on those umbrella companies that exploit workers, increase the interest rate on unpaid
00:21:26tax debt to ensure that people pay on time, and go after the promoters of tax avoidance
00:21:32schemes. These measures to reduce the tax gap raise £6.5 billion by the end of the
00:21:40forecast. I thank the Exchequer Secretary for his outstanding work on this agenda.
00:21:48Madam Deputy Speaker, I know that for working people up and down our country, family finances
00:21:54are stretched and paycheques do not go as far as they once did. So today I am taking
00:22:01steps to support people with the cost of living. It was the Labour Government that introduced
00:22:06the national minimum wage in 1999. It had a transformative impact on the lives of working
00:22:14people. As promised in our manifesto, we asked the Low Pay Commission to take account
00:22:20of the cost of living for the first time. I can confirm that we will accept the Low
00:22:26Pay Commission recommendation to increase the national living wage by 6.7% to £12.21
00:22:33an hour, worth up to £1,400 a year for a full-time worker. For the first time, we will
00:22:43move towards a single adult rate phased in over time by initially increasing the national
00:22:49minimum wage for 18 to 20-year-olds by 16.3%, as recommended by the Low Pay Commission,
00:22:57taking it to £10 an hour—a Labour policy to protect working people being delivered
00:23:05by a Labour Government once again. I have heard representations from colleagues across
00:23:14this House about the carers allowance and the impact of the current policy on carers
00:23:19looking to increase the hours that they work, including from the hon. Members for Shipley,
00:23:24the hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby and the right hon. Member for Kingston and
00:23:28Surbiton too. Carers allowance currently provides up to £81.90 per week to help those
00:23:36with additional caring responsibilities. Today, I can confirm that we are increasing the weekly
00:23:42earnings limit to the equivalent of 16 hours at the national living wage per week—the
00:23:48largest increase in carers allowance since it was introduced in 1976. This means that
00:23:56a carer can now earn over £10,000 a year while receiving carers allowance,
00:24:01allowing them to increase their hours where they want to and keep more of their money.
00:24:07I am also concerned about the cliff edge in the current system and the issue of overpayments.
00:24:12My right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary has announced an independent review
00:24:17to look at the issue of overpayments, and we will work across this House to develop the right
00:24:22solutions. Thirdly, we will provide £1 billion from next year to extend the household support
00:24:29fund and discretionary housing payments to help those facing financial hardship with the cost of
00:24:35essentials. Fourthly, having heard representations from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Trussell
00:24:42and others to reduce the level of debt repayments that can be taken from a household's universal
00:24:48credit payment each month by reducing it from 25% to 15% of their standard allowance.
00:24:57This means that 1.2 million of the poorest households will keep more of their award each
00:25:02month, lifting children out of poverty, and those who benefit will gain an average of £420 a year.
00:25:12Madam Deputy Speaker, our plan to make work pay will also protect working people.
00:25:19I know that the party opposite are deeply interested in our plans here.
00:25:24Having seen their colleagues repeatedly dismissed at short notice, I know that they are worried
00:25:31about their future under the right hon. Member for North West Essex, so they should rest easy
00:25:38knowing that our plan will protect working people from unfair dismissal.
00:25:43It will safeguard them from bullying in the workplace,
00:25:48and it will improve their access to paternity and maternity leave.
00:25:54I hope that the new Shadow Cabinet will soon be grateful for these increased protections.
00:26:01It is right that we protect those who have worked all their lives.
00:26:05In our manifesto, we promised to transfer the investment reserve fund in the mineworkers'
00:26:10pension scheme to Members. I have listened closely to my hon. Friends for Easington,
00:26:17Doncaster Central, Blaenau Gwent and Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock on this issue. Today,
00:26:23we are keeping our promise so that working people who powered our country receive the
00:26:28fair pension that they are owed. Our manifesto committed to the triple lock,
00:26:35meaning that spending on the state pension is forecast to rise by over £31 billion by 2029-30
00:26:42to ensure that our pensioners are protected in their retirement.
00:26:46This commitment means that while working-age benefits will be uprated in line with CPI
00:26:52at 1.7%, the basic and new state pension will be uprated by 4.1% in 2025-26.
00:27:01This means that over 12 million pensioners will gain up to £470 next year,
00:27:07up to £275 more than if uprated by inflation.
00:27:12The pension credit's standard minimum guarantee will also rise by 4.1%, from around £11,400 per
00:27:22year to around £11,850 a year for a single pensioner. While I have sought to protect
00:27:30working people with measures to reduce the cost of living, I have had to take some very
00:27:36difficult decisions on tax. I want to set out my approach to fuel duty.
00:27:42Baked into the numbers that I inherited from the previous Government is an assumption that
00:27:47fuel duty will rise by RPI next year and that the temporary 5p cut will be reversed.
00:27:55To retain the 5p cut and to freeze fuel duty again would cost over £3 billion next year,
00:28:03at a time when the fiscal position is so difficult. I have to be frank with the House
00:28:08that this is a substantial commitment to make. I have concluded that in these difficult
00:28:14circumstances, while the cost of living remains high and with a backdrop of global uncertainty,
00:28:21increasing fuel duty next year would be the wrong choice for working people.
00:28:27It would mean fuel duty rising by 7p per litre. So I have decided today to freeze fuel duty next
00:28:34year and I will maintain the existing 5p cut for another year too. There will be no higher taxes
00:28:46at the petrol pumps next year. The last Government made cuts of £20 billion to
00:28:55employees and self-employed national insurance in their final two Budgets. These tax cuts
00:29:01were not honest, because we now know that they were based on a forecast
00:29:06which the OBR say would have been materially different.
00:29:13It would have been materially different had they known the true extent of the last Government's
00:29:17cover-up. Since July, I have been urged on multiple occasions to reconsider these cuts
00:29:24to increase the taxes that working people pay and see in their payslips.
00:29:29But I have made an important choice today, to keep every single commitment that we made on tax in our manifesto.
00:29:38So I say to working people, I will not increase your national insurance,
00:29:43I will not increase your VAT and I will not increase your income tax.
00:29:50Working people will not see higher taxes in their payslips as a result of the choices that I am
00:29:55making today. That is a promise made and a promise fulfilled.
00:30:03But any responsible Chancellor would need to make difficult decisions today,
00:30:09to raise the revenues required to fund our public services and to restore economic stability.
00:30:17So in today's Budget, I am announcing an increase in employers' national insurance contributions.
00:30:22We will increase the rate of employers' national insurance by 1.2 percentage points,
00:30:27to 15% from April 2025. And we will reduce the secondary threshold,
00:30:34the level at which employers start paying national insurance on each employer's salary
00:30:38from £9,100 a year to £5,000. This will raise £25 billion per year by the end of the forecast period.
00:30:48I know that this is a difficult choice. I do not take this decision lightly.
00:30:56We are asking businesses to contribute more and I know that there will be impacts of this measure
00:31:02felt beyond businesses too, as the OBR have set out today.
00:31:05But in the circumstances that I have inherited, it is the right choice to make.
00:31:28Successful businesses depend on successful schools. Healthy businesses depend on a healthy NHS.
00:31:36And a strong economy depends on strong public finances.
00:31:41If the party opposite chooses to oppose this choice,
00:31:45then they are choosing more austerity, more chaos, more instability.
00:31:51This is the choice that our country faces too.
00:31:55As I make this choice, I know it is particularly important to protect our smallest companies.
00:32:02So having heard representations from the Federation of Small Businesses
00:32:06and others, I am today increasing the employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,500.
00:32:15This means 865,000 employers will not pay any national insurance at all next year.
00:32:21And over £1 million will pay the same or less than they did previously.
00:32:36This will allow a small business to employ the equivalent of four full-time workers
00:32:41on the national living wage, without paying any national insurance on their wages.
00:32:47Madam Deputy Speaker, let me now come to capital gains tax.
00:32:54We need to drive growth, promote entrepreneurship and support wealth creation,
00:32:59while raising the revenue required to fund our public services and restore our public finances.
00:33:06Today, we will increase the lower rate of capital gains tax from 10% to 18% and the higher rate
00:33:13from 20% to 24% while maintaining the rates of capital gains tax on residential property
00:33:20at 18% and 24% too. This means the UK will still have the lowest capital gains tax rate
00:33:26of any European G7 economy. Alongside these changes to the headline rates of capital gains tax,
00:33:35we are maintaining the lifetime limit for business asset disposal relief at £1 million
00:33:41to encourage entrepreneurs to invest in their businesses.
00:33:46Business asset disposal relief will remain at 10% this year before rising to 14% in April 2025
00:33:54and to 18% from 2026-27, maintaining a significant gap compared to the higher rate of capital gains
00:34:02tax. Together, the OBR say that these measures will raise £2.5 billion by the end of the forecast.
00:34:09In a sign of this Government's commitment to supporting growth and entrepreneurship,
00:34:14we have already extended the enterprise investment scheme and the venture capital
00:34:19trust schemes to 2035, and we will continue to work with leading entrepreneurs and venture
00:34:24capital firms to ensure that our policies support a positive environment for entrepreneurship in
00:34:30the UK. Next, inheritance tax. Only 6% of estates will pay inheritance tax this year. I understand
00:34:40the strongly held desire to pass down savings to children and grandchildren,
00:34:46so I am taking a balanced approach in my package today. First, the previous Government froze
00:34:52inheritance tax thresholds until 2028. I will extend that freeze for a further two years until
00:34:592030. That means the first £325,000 of any estate can be inherited tax-free, rising to £500,000
00:35:10if the estate includes a residence passed to direct descendants, and £1 million when a tax-free
00:35:16allowance is passed to a surviving spouse or civil partner. Second, we will close the loophole
00:35:23created by the previous Government, made even bigger when the lifetime allowance was abolished,
00:35:28by bringing inherited pensions into inheritance tax from April 2027. Finally, we will reform
00:35:36agricultural property relief and business property relief. From April 2026, the first £1 million of
00:35:43combined business and agricultural assets will continue to attract no inheritance tax at all,
00:35:50but for assets over £1 million, inheritance tax will apply with a 50% relief at an effective
00:35:58rate of 20%. This will ensure that we continue to protect small family farms,
00:36:07with three quarters of claims unaffected by these changes. I can also announce that we will apply
00:36:15a 50% relief in all circumstances on inheritance tax for shares on the alternative investment
00:36:21market and other similar markets, setting the effective rate of tax at 20%. Taken together,
00:36:28these measures raise over £2 billion by the final year of the forecast.
00:36:34Next, I can confirm that the Government will renew the tobacco duty escalator for the remainder of
00:36:40this Parliament at RPI plus 2%, increase duty by a further 10% on hand-rolling tobacco this year,
00:36:47introduce a flat rate duty on all vaping liquid from October 2026,
00:36:55alongside an additional one-off increase in tobacco duty to maintain the incentive to give
00:37:00up smoking. We will increase the soft drinks industry levy to account for inflation since
00:37:07it was introduced, as well as increasing the duty in line with CPI each year going forward.
00:37:13These measures will raise nearly £1 billion per year by the end of the forecast period.
00:37:20We want to support the take-up of electric vehicles, so I will maintain the incentives
00:37:25for electric vehicles in company car tax from 2028 and increase the differential between fully
00:37:31electric and other vehicles in the first-year rates of vehicle excise duty from April 2025.
00:37:39These measures will raise around £400 million by the end of the forecast period.
00:37:46Let me update the House on our plans for air passenger duty.
00:37:51I can see that the right hon. Gentleman's ears have pricked up.
00:37:59Air passenger duty has not kept up with inflation in recent years,
00:38:04so we are introducing an adjustment, meaning an increase of no more than £2
00:38:09for an economy-class short-haul flight. But I am taking a different approach when it comes
00:38:14to private jets, increasing the rate of air passenger duty by a further 50%. That is
00:38:30equivalent to £450 per passenger for a private jet to, say, California.
00:38:40Madam Deputy Speaker, let us now turn to our high street businesses.
00:38:46I know that for them a major source of concern is business rates. From 2026-27, we intend to
00:38:54introduce two permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties,
00:38:59which make up the backbone of our high streets across the country.
00:39:03It is our intention that it is paid for by a higher multiplier for the most valuable properties,
00:39:10but the previous Government created a cliff edge next year as temporary reliefs end.
00:39:15So I will today provide 40% relief on business rates for the retail, hospitality and leisure
00:39:22industry in 2025-26, up to a cap of £110,000 per business. Alongside this, the small business tax
00:39:32multiplier will be frozen next year. Next, I can confirm that alcohol duty rates on non-draft
00:39:39products will increase in line with RPI from February next year, but nearly two-thirds of
00:39:46alcoholic drinks sold in pubs are served on draft. So today, instead of uprating these products in
00:39:52line with inflation, I am cutting draft duty by 1.7%, which means a penny off the pint in the pub.
00:40:11Alongside the changes I am making today, I am publishing a corporate tax road map,
00:40:19providing the business certainty called for by the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce
00:40:25and the Institute for Directors. This confirms our commitment to cap the rate of corporation tax at
00:40:3125%, the lowest in the G7, for the duration of this Parliament, while maintaining full
00:40:38expensing and the £1 million annual investment allowance, and keeping the current rates of
00:40:43research and development relief to drive innovation. In our manifesto, we made a number of
00:40:51commitments to raise funding for our public services. First, I have always said that if you
00:40:58make Britain your home, you should pay your taxes here too. So today, I can confirm that we will
00:41:06abolish the non-DOM tax regime, and we will remove the outdated concept of domicile from the tax
00:41:14system from April 2025. We will introduce a new residence-based scheme, with internationally
00:41:22competitive arrangements for those coming to the UK on a temporary basis, while closing the
00:41:28loopholes in the scheme designed by the party opposite. To further encourage investment into
00:41:33the UK, we will also extend the temporary repatriation relief to three years and expand
00:41:39its scope, bringing billions of pounds of new funds into Britain. The Independent Office for
00:41:45Budget Responsibility says that this package of measures will raise £12.7 billion over the next
00:41:51five years. Next, the fund management industry provides a vital contribution to our economy,
00:41:59but as our manifesto sets out, there needs to be a fairer approach to the way in which carried
00:42:04interest is taxed. We will increase the capital gains rate on carried interest to 32% from April
00:42:122025. From April 2026, we will deliver further reform to ensure that the specific rules for
00:42:18carried interest are simpler, fairer and better targeted. In our manifesto, we committed to
00:42:25reforming stamp duty land tax to raise revenues while supporting those buying their first home.
00:42:32We are increasing the stamp duty land tax surcharge for second homes, known as the higher
00:42:37rate for additional dwellings, by 2 percentage points to 5%, which will come into effect from
00:42:44tomorrow. This will support over 130,000 additional transactions from people buying their first home
00:42:53or moving home over the next five years. Next, we are committed to reforming the energy profits
00:43:00levy on oil and gas companies. I can confirm today that we will increase the rate of the levy
00:43:06to 38%, which will now expire in March 2030, and we will remove the 29% investment allowance
00:43:14to ensure that the oil and gas industry can protect jobs and support our energy security.
00:43:20So we will maintain the 100% first-year allowances and the decarbonisation allowances too.
00:43:30Finally, 94% of children in the UK attend state schools. To provide the highest quality of support
00:43:39and teaching that they deserve, we will introduce VAT on private school fees from January 2025,
00:43:47and we will shortly introduce legislation to remove their business rates relief from April 2025 too.
00:43:54We said in our manifesto that these changes, alongside our measures to tackle tax avoidance,
00:44:00would bring in £8.5 billion in the final year of the forecast.
00:44:05I can confirm today that they will in fact raise over £9 billion to support our public services
00:44:16and restore our public finances. That is a promise made and a promise fulfilled.
00:44:25Madam Deputy Speaker, I have one final decision to take on tax today.
00:44:31The previous Government froze income tax and national insurance thresholds
00:44:36in 2021, and then they did so again after the mini-budget. Extending their threshold freeze
00:44:43for a further two years raises billions of pounds—money to deal with the black hole
00:44:48in our public finances and repair our public services. Having considered this issue closely,
00:44:56I have come to the conclusion that extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people. It
00:45:02would take more money out of their payslips. I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made
00:45:08in our manifesto, so there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax and national insurance
00:45:16thresholds beyond the decisions by the previous Government. From 2028-29, personal tax thresholds
00:45:23will be uprated in line with inflation once again. When it comes to choices on tax,
00:45:31this Government choose to protect working people every single time.
00:45:39Madam Deputy Speaker, these are the choices I have made to restore economic stability
00:45:47and to protect working people. The next choice I make is to begin to repair our public services.
00:45:58In recent months, we have conducted the first phase of the spending review
00:46:02to set departmental budgets for 2024-25 and 2025-26. I thank my right hon. Friend the
00:46:10Chief Secretary to the Treasury for his tireless work with colleagues from across Government.
00:46:16Because I have taken difficult decisions on tax today, I am able to provide an injection
00:46:21of immediate funding over the next two years to stabilise and support our public services.
00:46:28The next phase of the spending review will report in late spring, and I have set the overall
00:46:34envelope today. Day-to-day spending from 2024-25 onwards will grow by 1.5% in real terms,
00:46:44and today departmental spending, including capital spending, will grow by 1.7% in real terms.
00:46:52At the election, we promised there would be no return to austerity. Today we deliver on that
00:46:58promise. But given the scale of the challenge we are facing in our public services,
00:47:06that means there will still be difficult choices in the next phase of the spending review.
00:47:10Just as we cannot tax and spend our way to prosperity,
00:47:14nor can we simply spend our way to better public services. So we will deliver a new approach
00:47:20to public service reform, using technology to improve public services and taking a zero-based
00:47:27approach so that taxpayers' money is spent as effectively as possible, and so we focus
00:47:34on delivering our key priorities. In the first phase of the spending review, I have prioritised
00:47:40day-to-day funding to deliver on our manifesto commitments. I want every child to have the very
00:47:47best start in life and the best possible start to the school day too. I know my right hon. Friend
00:47:54the Education Secretary shares my ambition, so I am today tripling investment in breakfast clubs
00:48:01to fund them in thousands of schools. I am increasing the core schools budget by £2.3
00:48:09billion next year to support our pledge to hire thousands more teachers into key subjects.
00:48:17So that our young people can develop the skills they need for the future,
00:48:21I am providing an additional £300 million for further education.
00:48:28Finally, this Government are committed to reforming special educational needs provision
00:48:34to improve outcomes for our most vulnerable children and to ensure that the system is
00:48:40financially sustainable. To support that work, I am today providing a £1 billion uplift in funding,
00:48:47a 6% real-terms increase from this year. There is no more important job for Government than to
00:48:56keep our country safe, and we are conducting a strategic defence review to be published next
00:49:01year. As set out in our manifesto, we will set a path to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence at a
00:49:09future fiscal event. Today, I am announcing a total increase to the Ministry of Defence's budget
00:49:16of £2.9 billion next year, ensuring that the UK comfortably exceeds our NATO commitments
00:49:24and providing guaranteed military support to Ukraine of £3 billion per year for as long as it
00:49:30takes. Last week, alongside my right hon. Friend the Defence Secretary, I announced, in addition
00:49:38to this, further support to Ukraine, on top of our NATO commitment, through our £2.26 billion
00:49:45contribution to the G7's extraordinary revenue acceleration agreement, repaid using profits
00:49:51from immobilised Russian sovereign assets. As we approach Remembrance Sunday, it is vital
00:50:00that we take time to remember those who have served our country so bravely.
00:50:04So I am today announcing funding to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day next year,
00:50:14to honour those who have served at home and abroad. We must also remember those who experienced the
00:50:20atrocities of the Nazi regime first hand. I would like to pay tribute to Lily Ebert,
00:50:27the Holocaust survivor and educator who passed away aged 100 earlier this month.
00:50:34I am today committing a further £2 million to Holocaust education next year, so that charities
00:50:40like the Holocaust Educational Trust can continue their work to ensure that these
00:50:46vital testimonies are not lost and are preserved for the future.
00:50:53To repair our public services, we also need to work alongside our mayors and local leaders.
00:50:59We will deliver a significant real-terms funding increase for local governments next year,
00:51:06including £1.3 billion of additional grant funding to deliver essential services,
00:51:12with at least £600 million in grant funding for social care, and £230 million to tackle
00:51:19homelessness and rough sleeping. We are today confirming that Greater Manchester and the West
00:51:26Midlands will be the first mayoral authorities to receive integrated settlements from next year,
00:51:31giving mayors meaningful control of the funding for their local areas.
00:51:38To support our high streets, we are taking action to deal with the sharp rise in shoplifting that
00:51:43we have seen in recent years. We will scrap the effective immunity for low-value shoplifting
00:51:49introduced by the party officers. Having listened closely to organisations such as the British
00:51:56Retail Consortium and the trade union USDAW, I am providing additional funding to crack down
00:52:02on the organised gangs that target retailers, and to provide more training to our police officers
00:52:08and retailers to stop shoplifting in its tracks. Finally, I am today providing funding to support
00:52:17public services and drive growth across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
00:52:24Having discussed the matter with the First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan,
00:52:28and my hon. Friends the Member for Llanelli and Pontypridd, I am today providing £25 million
00:52:34to the Welsh Government next year for the maintenance of coal tips to ensure that we
00:52:38keep our communities safe. To support growth, including in our rural areas, we will proceed
00:52:46with city and growth deals in Northern Ireland, in Causeway Coast and Glens and the mid-south-west.
00:52:53We will drive growth in Scotland, which is a key priority for Scottish Labour and our leader,
00:52:58Anas Sarwar, including with a city and growth deal in Argyll and Bute. This Budget provides
00:53:06the devolved Governments with the largest real-terms funding settlement since devolution,
00:53:12delivering an additional £3.4 billion to the Scottish Government through the Barnett formula,
00:53:22funding that must now be used effectively in Scotland
00:53:26to deliver the public services that the people of Scotland deserve.
00:53:33This Budget also provides £1.7 billion to the Welsh Government and £1.5 billion
00:53:39to the Northern Ireland Executive in 2025-26. I said that there would be no return to austerity,
00:53:47and that is the choice that I have made today.
00:53:53Madam Deputy Speaker, to rebuild our country we need to increase investment. The UK lags
00:54:01behind every other G7 country when it comes to business investment as a share of our economy.
00:54:08That matters. It means that the UK has fallen behind in the race for new jobs,
00:54:13new industries and new technology. By restoring economic stability and by establishing the
00:54:21National Wealth Fund to catalyse private funding, we have begun to create the conditions that
00:54:26businesses need to invest. But there is also a significant role for public investment.
00:54:33For too long we have seen Conservative chancellors cut investment and raid capital budgets to plug
00:54:39gaps in day-to-day spending. The result is clear for all to see. Hospitals without the equipment
00:54:47they need, school buildings not fit for our children, a desperate lack of affordable housing,
00:54:55and economic growth held back at every turn.
00:55:00Under the plans I inherited, public investment was set to fall from 2.5% to 1.7% of GDP.
00:55:13But in Washington last week, the International Monetary Fund was clear
00:55:18that more public investment is badly needed in the UK.
00:55:22So, having listened to the case made by the former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney,
00:55:29former Treasury Minister Jim O'Neill, and the former Cabinet Secretary, Gus O'Donnell,
00:55:34among others, I am confirming our investment rule. As set out in our manifesto, we will target
00:55:42debt falling as a share of the economy. Debt will be defined as public sector net financial liabilities,
00:55:49or net financial debt for short, a metric that has been measured by the Office for National
00:55:54Statistics since 2016 and forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility since that date too.
00:56:02Net financial debt recognises that government investment delivers returns for taxpayers
00:56:09by counting not just the liabilities on a government's balance sheet,
00:56:13but the financial assets too. This means that we count the benefits of that investment,
00:56:20not just the costs, and we free up our institutions to invest, just as they do in Germany, France and
00:56:28Japan. Like our stability rule, our investment rule will apply in 2029-30, until that becomes
00:56:37the third year of the forecast. From that point onwards, net financial debt will fall in the third
00:56:44year of every forecast. Today, the Office for Budget Responsibility says that we are already
00:56:49meeting our target two years early, with net financial debt falling by 2027-28, with £15.7
00:56:58billion of headroom in the final year. So that we drive the right incentives
00:57:04in government investments, we will introduce four key guardrails to ensure that capital spending
00:57:10is good value for money and drives growth in our economy. First, our portfolio of new financial
00:57:17investments will be delivered by expert bodies such as the National Wealth Fund, which must by
00:57:23default earn a rate of return at least as large as that on gilts. Second, we will strengthen the role
00:57:30of institutions to improve infrastructure delivery. Third, we will improve certainty,
00:57:36setting capital budgets for five years and extending them at every spending review every two years.
00:57:44Finally, we will ensure that there is greater transparency for capital spending,
00:57:49with robust annual reporting of financial investments based on accounts audited by the
00:57:54National Audit Office and made available to the Office for Budget Responsibility at every forecast.
00:58:02Taken together with our stability rule, these fiscal rules will ensure that our public finances
00:58:08are on a firm footing while enabling us to invest prudently alongside business.
00:58:15The capital plans that I now set out to drive growth across our country and repair the fabric
00:58:22of our nation are only possible because of our investment rule. Let me set out those investment
00:58:29plans. Today, we are confirming our plans to capitalise the National Wealth Fund to invest
00:58:36in the industries of the future, from gigafactories to ports to green hydrogen.
00:58:43Building on these investments, my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary
00:58:47is driving forward our modern industrial strategy,
00:58:52working with businesses and organisations such as Make UK to set out the sectors with the biggest
00:58:58growth potential. Today, we are confirming multi-year funding commitments for these areas
00:59:04of our economy, including nearly £1 billion for the aerospace sector to fund vital research
00:59:11and development, building on our industry in the East Midlands, the south-west and in Scotland.
00:59:17Over £2 billion for the automotive sector to support our electric vehicle industry and
00:59:23develop our manufacturing base, building on our strengths in the north-east and the west midlands,
00:59:30and up to £520 million for a new life sciences innovative manufacturing fund.
00:59:38For our world-leading creative industries, we will legislate to provide additional tax relief
00:59:44for visual effects costs in TV and film, and we are providing £25 million for the North East
00:59:50Combined Authority, which it plans to use to remediate the Crown Works studio site in Sunderland,
00:59:57creating 8,000 new jobs. To unlock these growth industries of the future, we will protect
01:00:05Government investment in research and development, with more than £20 billion worth of funding.
01:00:11This includes at least £6.1 billion to protect core research funding for areas like engineering,
01:00:18biotechnology and medical science, through Research England, other research councils
01:00:25and the national academies. We will extend the innovation accelerators programme in Glasgow,
01:00:32in Manchester and in the west midlands. With over £500 million of funding next year,
01:00:39my right hon. Friend the Science, Technology and Innovation Secretary will continue to drive
01:00:45progress in improving reliable, fast broadband and mobile coverage across our country,
01:00:51including in rural areas. We committed in our manifesto to build 1.5 million homes over the
01:01:00course of this Parliament, and my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister is driving
01:01:06that work forward across Government. Today, I am providing over £5 billion of Government
01:01:13investment to deliver our plans on housing next year. We will increase the affordable
01:01:20homes programme to £3.1 billion, delivering thousands of new homes. We will provide £3
01:01:28billion-worth of support in guarantees to boost the supply of homes and support our small
01:01:34housebuilders, and we will provide investment to renovate sites across our country, including
01:01:42at Liverpool central docks, where we will deliver 2,000 new homes, and funding to help Cambridge
01:01:48realise its full growth potential. Alongside this investment, we will put the right policies in place
01:01:56to increase the supply of affordable housing.
01:02:02Having heard representations from local authorities, social housing providers and from
01:02:08Shelter, I can today confirm that the Government will reduce right-to-buy discounts and local
01:02:14authorities will be able to retain the full receipts from any site of social housing,
01:02:21so that we can reinvest them back into the housing stock and into new supply.
01:02:28By doing this, we will give more people a safe, secure and affordable place to live.
01:02:36We will provide stability to social housing providers with a social housing rent settlement
01:02:42of CPI plus 1% for the next five years, and we will deliver on our manifesto commitment
01:02:49to hire hundreds of new planning officers to get Britain building.
01:02:55We will also make progress on our commitment to accelerate the remediation of homes,
01:03:02following the findings of the Grenfell inquiry,
01:03:06with £1 billion of investment to remove dangerous cladding next year.
01:03:11The last Government made a number of promises on transport, but they failed to fund them.
01:03:24Working with my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary, I am changing that.
01:03:30We are today securing the delivery of the trans-Pennine upgrade to connect York,
01:03:35Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester,
01:03:40delivering fully electric local and regional services between Manchester and Stalybridge
01:03:45by the end of this year, with a further electrification of services between Churchfenton
01:03:52and York by 2026, to help grow our economy across the north of England with faster and
01:04:00more reliable services. We will deliver east-west rail to drive growth between Oxford, Milton Keynes
01:04:08and Cambridge, with the first services running between Oxford, Bletchley and Milton Keynes next
01:04:14year, and trains between Oxford and Bedford running from 2030. We are delivering railway
01:04:22schemes that improve journeys for people across our country, including upgrades at Bradford
01:04:28Forster Square station, improving capacity at Manchester Victoria and electrifying the Wigan
01:04:34to Bolton line. My right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary has also set out a plan for how to get
01:04:41a grip of HS2. Today, we are securing delivery of the project between Old Oak Common and Birmingham,
01:04:50and we are committing the funding required to begin tunnelling work to London Euston station.
01:04:58This will catalyse private investment into the local area, delivering jobs and growth.
01:05:04I am also funding significant improvements to our roads network. For too long,
01:05:10potholes have been an all-too-visible reminder of our failure to invest as a nation. Today,
01:05:17that changes, with a £500 million increase in road maintenance budgets next year,
01:05:24more than delivering on our manifesto commitment to fix an additional 1 million potholes each year.
01:05:33We will provide over £650 million of local transport funding to improve connections
01:05:40across our country, in towns such as Crewe and Grimsby, and in our villages and rural areas,
01:05:46from Cornwall to Cumbria. While the previous Government's policy was for the bus fare cap
01:05:53to end this December, we understand how important bus services are for our communities,
01:06:00and so we will extend the cap for a further year, setting it at £3 until December 2025.
01:06:10Finally, we will deliver £1.3 billion of funding to improve connectivity in our city regions,
01:06:18funding projects such as the Briley Hill metro extension in the west midlands,
01:06:22the renewal of Sheffield's SuperTram, and the West Yorkshire mass transit, including in Bradford
01:06:30and Leeds. To bring new jobs to Britain and to drive growth across our country,
01:06:39we are delivering our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower,
01:06:44led by my right hon. Friend the Energy Secretary. Earlier this month, we announced a significant
01:06:51multi-year investment between Government and business into carbon capture and storage,
01:06:57creating 4,000 jobs across Merseyside and Teesside. Today, I am providing funding
01:07:05for 11 new green hydrogen projects across England, Scotland and Wales.
01:07:14They will be amongst the first commercial-scale projects anywhere in the world,
01:07:21including in Bridgend, East Renfrewshire and Barrow-in-Furness.
01:07:27We are kick-starting the warm homes plan by confirming an initial £3.4 billion over the
01:07:33next three years to transform 350,000 homes, including a quarter of a million low-income
01:07:41and social homes. We will establish GB Energy, providing funding next year
01:07:49to set up GB Energy at its new home in Aberdeen.
01:07:54Overall, we will invest an additional £100 billion over the next five years in capital spending,
01:08:08only possible because of our investment rule. The OBR says today that this investment
01:08:15will drive growth across our country in the next five years and, in the longer term,
01:08:21increase GDP by up to 1.4%. It will crowd in private investment, meaning more jobs and more
01:08:31opportunities in every corner of the UK. That is the choice that I have made—to invest in our
01:08:38country and to grow our economy. Today, I am setting out two final areas in which investment
01:08:45is so badly needed to repair the fabric of our nation.
01:08:54My right hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham West and East Dulwich and I
01:08:58joined the Labour party because of the condition of our schools in the 1980s
01:09:03and 1990s under Conservative Governments. When we were at secondary school, my sixth
01:09:10form was a couple of prefab huts in the playground. My school, like so many others,
01:09:14was rebuilt by the last Labour Government, but today, after 14 years of Tory Government,
01:09:22progress has gone backwards. School roofs are crumbling and millions of children are facing
01:09:33the same backdrop as I did. I will be the Chancellor who changes that.
01:09:38So today, I am providing £6.7 billion of capital investment to the Department
01:09:46for Education next year—a 19% real-terms increase on this year.
01:09:53That includes £1.4 billion to rebuild over 500 schools in the greatest need,
01:10:00including St Helens Primary School in Hartlepool and Mercia Academy in Derby,
01:10:05and so many more across our country. We will provide £2.1 billion more to improve school
01:10:13maintenance—£300 million more than this year—ensuring that all our children can learn
01:10:20somewhere safe, including dealing with rack-affected schools in the constituencies
01:10:26of my right hon. Friends for Watford, Stourbridge, Hindburn and beyond.
01:10:32Alongside investment in new teachers and funding through thousands of new breakfast clubs,
01:10:39this Government are giving our children and young people the opportunities that they deserve.
01:10:49I come to our most cherished public service of all—our NHS.
01:10:56My right hon. Friend the Health Secretary is beginning to repair the damage of the last 14
01:11:01years. In our first week in office, he commissioned an independent report
01:11:07into the state of our health service by Lord Darzi. His conclusions were damning.
01:11:14While our NHS staff do a remarkable job, and we thank them for it, it is clear
01:11:21that in so many areas we are moving in the wrong direction.
01:11:25Last year, 100,000 infants waited over six hours in A&E, and 350,000 people are waiting a year
01:11:37for mental health support. Cancer deaths here are higher than in other countries.
01:11:43It is simply unforgivable. In the spring, we will publish a 10-year plan for the NHS
01:11:51to deliver a shift from hospital to community, from analogue to digital and from sickness
01:11:59to prevention. Today, we are announcing a down payment on that plan to enable the NHS to deliver
01:12:072% productivity growth next year. These reforms are vital, but we should be honest.
01:12:14The state of the NHS that we have inherited after, and I quote Lord Darzi,
01:12:20the most austere decade since the NHS was founded,
01:12:25means that reform must come alongside investment.
01:12:32So today, because of the difficult decisions that I have taken on tax, welfare and spending,
01:12:40I can announce that I am providing a £22.6 billion increase in the day-to-day health budget.
01:12:50And a £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget over this year and next.
01:12:57This is the largest real-terms growth in day-to-day NHS spending outside of covid since 2010.
01:13:06Let me set out what this funding is delivering.
01:13:10Many NHS buildings have been left in a state of disrepair,
01:13:15so we will provide £1 billion of health capital investment next year
01:13:20to address the backlog of repairs and upgrades across our NHS.
01:13:25To increase capacity for tens of thousands more procedures next year,
01:13:30we will provide a further £1.5 billion for new beds in hospitals across our country,
01:13:37new capacity for over a million additional diagnostic tests,
01:13:42and new surgical hubs and diagnostic centres,
01:13:46so that people waiting for their treatment can get it as quickly as possible.
01:13:53My right hon. Friend the Health Secretary will be setting out further details of his review
01:13:58into the new hospital programme in the coming weeks and publishing in the new year,
01:14:04but I can tell the House today that work will continue at pace
01:14:08to deliver those seven hospitals affected by the wrack crisis,
01:14:13including West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and Leighton Hospital in Crewe.
01:14:20And finally, because of this record injection of funding,
01:14:24because of the thousands of additional beds that we have secured,
01:14:28and because of the reforms that we are delivering in our NHS,
01:14:32we can now begin to bring waiting lists down more quickly
01:14:37and move towards our target for waiting times to be no longer than 18 weeks.
01:14:45By delivering on our manifesto commitment for 40,000 extra hospital appointments a week,
01:14:52that is the difference that this Labour Government is making.
01:14:56Madam Deputy Speaker, the choices I have made today are the right choices
01:15:07to restore stability to our public finances, to protect working people,
01:15:15to fix our NHS and to rebuild Britain.
01:15:19That does not mean these choices are easy, but they are responsible.
01:15:28If the party opposite disagrees with the choices that I have made,
01:15:34then they must answer. What choices would they make?
01:15:41Would they again choose the path of irresponsibility
01:15:50taken by Liz Truss and ignore the problems in our public finances altogether?
01:15:57If that is their choice, they should say so.
01:16:02But let me be clear, if they disagree with my choices on tax,
01:16:06then they would not be able to protect working people.
01:16:14If they disagree with our plans to fund public services,
01:16:18then they would have to cut schools and hospitals.
01:16:23And if they disagree with our investment rule,
01:16:26then they would have to delay or cancel thousands of projects which drive growth across our country.
01:16:34This is a moment of fundamental choice for Britain.
01:16:41I have made my choices, the responsible choices,
01:16:45to restore stability to our country, to protect working people,
01:16:54more teachers in our schools, more appointments in our NHS,
01:16:59more homes being built, fixing the foundations of our economy,
01:17:04investing in our future, delivering change, rebuilding Britain.
01:17:10We on these benches commend those choices and I commend this statement to the House.