Budget 2025: a springboard for growth?

The Industry Forum assembled a stellar panel to discuss the key question, ‘Does Rachel Reeves’s 2025 budget provide a springboard for growth?’ Leading the discussion were Dr. Jeevun Sandher MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary for the Department for Business and Trade and Trade; Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser and Board Member at the Centre for Business & Economic Research (CEBR); Wes Ball, Senior Vice-President at Edelman, and Andrew Smith, Chief Economic Adviser, Industry Forum. The roundtable was hosted by the Railway Industry Association and guests were welcomed by James McGowan, Policy and Public Affairs Director at RIA. It is clear that increasing taxes to pay for restoring public services does put a significant load on the economy, but economics is not good at predicting the financial benefits of reducing, for example, chronic problems in access to healthcare, housing affordability and child poverty. It is also possible that the relative stability of the UK economy compared with the US and some mainland European states, and its lighter regulation than the EU may benefit the UK, despite not balancing the long-lasting damage of Brexit. The government’s clear industrial strategy will help companies plan and will increase their confidence in making investments. Inevitably from a gathering of business people some good ideas surfaced. These included greater powers for city/regions with Manchester/Liverpool a prime example; deploying some surplus pension funds for infrastructure investment, and also recognising the potential of our world-leading universities to generate income as well as innovation and research.