Autumn Budget 2025

Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

My Lords, I first acknowledge the maiden contribution of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth, who I welcome to the House, as well as the rare privilege of speaking in the same debate as my noble kinswoman Lady Pitkeathley.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

You could have said. “My mum”.

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

I could have said, “My mum”, you are right.

The headroom has pleased the markets. The currency is doing better and the Chancellor, despite noises around her, will feel that we now have a stable platform to build on. However, as I listen to today’s debate, in and outside the Chamber, I sense a direction of travel that leads me to a simple challenge. If one’s preferred response to our current position is essentially, “Well, I wouldn’t start from here”, then one may be missing the salient point: here is the only place to start from—this moment, these constraints and this inheritance, not the one we wish we had. If we get the macro picture wrong, we all know what follows, and within the limits the Chancellor has to work with the real question becomes: what else does one actually, workably, do?

Far too often, criticism without responsibility is treated as contribution. But if we are genuinely interested in solutions, then our starting point must be the real fiscal and political constraints in front of us, not a fantasy world where money is infinite, trade-offs do not exist, and the economics politely step aside while ideology enjoys itself. We all know the refrain: “Everyone needs to do their bit”, and the reply, “Yes, but why does one of them have to be me?” We all agree that we need new infrastructure and new public commons, and in the next line: “Yes, but does it absolutely have to be near me?” When we discuss tax reform, welfare reform or planning reform, we hear: “Yes, but must it really apply to people like me?” There is always a constituency for change in general and an equal constituency against change in particular.

Against this backdrop, building a strong economy is vital, so the projected increase in growth from 1% to 1.5% is welcome. Having wages rising is welcome and productivity, the eternal British riddle, seems finally to be turning, although I acknowledge that the OBR largely seems to have given up on forecasting significant gains. With likely losses in professional jobs as AI adoption accelerates, that caution is understandable.

Lower inflation and the hope of lower interest rates is a relief. The focus on helping high-potential firms to scale and stay is essential; for too long, we have been the R&D lab for the rest of the world. The entrepreneurship policy paper published alongside the Budget, which includes increasing limits for venture capital trusts and the enterprise investment scheme, more British Business Bank capital going to key industries and departments using procurement to promote innovation, is more welcome news.

Tax cuts for high-street businesses are also welcome and should, once the complexities around reliefs per hereditament—and, yes, I do know what a hereditament is—are understood, reduce bills for many, although concerns remain about how larger payers will react and the coinciding business rates revaluation inevitably makes life harder for some. And London, once again, is being asked to shoulder an ever-increasing share of the burden as if this had no consequence for the wider economy.

Two difficult truths also deserve stating. First, Brexit and austerity have been economically unhelpful. Secondly, taxing wealth a little more like we tax work is not radical; it is overdue and fair. Where today’s debate has been useful is where it has been rooted in where we actually stand. The question is not “What is the perfect solution?” but “What is the best responsible path from here?”, because here, with all its imperfections, is where the British economy lives, and it is the only place from which we can build the future we say we want. That, it seems to me, is the future the Chancellor clearly has in her sights.