Budget Resolutions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher). The overriding question after the Chancellor sat down yesterday was, “Is that it?” Most Budgets manage to survive 24 hours before they fall apart; his Budget lasted about 24 minutes before it fell apart, as the Leader of the Opposition eviscerated it, quite rightly.

The verdict this morning suggests that living standards will fall over the duration of this Government and that although over the 2010-2020 period household income increased by 12%, in this decade it is likely to increase only by 2%. That demonstrates that this Government and this Chancellor are making Britain poorer, and we have to remember as well that there are baked-in tax increases from the previous Chancellor that are kicking in now.

I will look at four areas of the Budget where there are missed opportunities. First, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Cotswolds (Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) pointed out, there is nothing in the Budget for young people. There are a million young people not in education, training or work. There could have been an opportunity to reduce national insurance contributions for recent graduates under 25, but there was no action. As a result, graduate unemployment is dramatically up. There could have been action on reducing the amount of interest that ex-students pay on their student loans. That was promised but not delivered. On energy costs, a lot of young people in London share houses in bands E to F, so they will get no relief from the £100 drop-in-the-ocean energy payment that is dished out.

There are clearly taxes on savers, taxes on banks and taxes on landlords. That means that rents will go up, which means that young people will end up paying the price. For most landlords, the problem is they cannot sell their properties because of the inflated stamp duty that applies, and therefore the amount of supply will reduce.

I note that smoking or smoking cessation were not mentioned once in the Budget. Unbelievably, smoking cessation in the national health service is being cut when there are still 4.9 million smokers out there who desperately want to quit. They will not get the support under this Government that they desperately need. That costs the economy £53.2 billion every year through lost productivity, healthcare and social care costs, and smoking-related fires. It is a big issue hitting young and old people.

I welcome the extra money to enable every rough sleeper to have a roof over their head. The commitment was, of course, that they would be taken off the streets before Christmas. It has now been watered down—they will be given an offer of somewhere to sleep. At the same time, the number of people who are homeless or rough sleeping is increasing. Far from dealing with the problem, the Government are not addressing it properly.

It is good news that the Vagrancy Act 1824 has been scrapped, and we celebrated that two days ago. There is much more we can do to help people in this extremely vulnerable position. As I mentioned earlier this week, we still await the implementation of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 that I introduced three years ago, which would help prevent vulnerable people from being exploited.

There are concerns straight away on the Government’s moves to bring empty buildings back into use. The key there is who will pay the cost. Where is the money coming from when councils already have overstretched budgets? Dealing with local authorities, the £100 council tax rebate does not fix the core spending issues. For those who follow these things, the average increase in council tax last year at band D was £111, so the £100 that some people will get back will disappear when the council tax increases come in this year.

The problem now at local authority level is that the demand-led services, which of course are not in the control of local authorities, continue to spiral. I welcome the fact that the Government have given a three-year settlement, but it will still not be sufficient, and in many cases it will lead to huge council tax increases and cuts in services. All in all, this Budget is a series of missed opportunities that could have been easily solved.

[Several hon. Members rose—]