Budget Resolutions

Nigel Huddleston Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)]

It is a pleasure to open the final day of the Budget debate. As we begin, let us pause and remember what is really essential to the debate today. Where are we as a country and what do we really need to talk about in this debate? I would put it like this. In the last year, gas prices have tripled, oil prices are up by over 60% and our borrowing costs—alongside those of all the major economies—have risen; and yet, business investment is rising, our economic growth has accelerated and the IMF has singled out the UK for praise for our deficit reduction plan. That is testament to the extraordinary resilience of the British people, British businesses and the British economy.

We know from reading the official documentation that there is no doubt but that ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran have driven up costs here and around the world. However, despite these significant economic headwinds, when the Chancellor came here last week, he delivered a substantial cost of living package to help the British people and long-term reforms to strengthen growth, and he commanded market confidence while he did so in a way that eluded the previous Conservative Government. There is not a shred of complacency on this side of the House, but the package he announced built on the success we have already achieved, with year-on-year growth—again, above 2%; an economy growing per head—not just through higher immigration, but because living standards are increasing; and wages rising faster than prices. It is clear, as we stand here today, that we can say the economy is stronger today than when this Government came to power.

But we know things are still tough. That is why the Budget unveiled much-needed breathing space for families, businesses and working people. Beyond that breathing space, we are beginning and proceeding with the big changes needed to put our country on a better course: reindustrialising Britain, driving good growth in every postcode, and strengthening our national security. The Budget shows entrepreneurs, inventors and investors that the UK is the best place to start and grow a business, with this Government using our industrial strategy and wider policy platform to back them every step of the way. We cannot insulate people from every pressure or meet every ask in one go, but we can provide the targeted support that is necessary where it can make the biggest practical difference.

That is why, to help our high streets and small and medium-sized enterprises, the Budget contains a £1 billion business rates package. In England, shops, restaurants and cafés of all sizes will get a two-year real-terms freeze. Around 70,000 more small retail, hospitality and leisure properties will be taken out of business rates altogether. To ensure that our high streets are vibrant into the future, the Budget also commits us to upgrading 600 post office branches in this financial year. That will help them to provide more accessible, welcoming spaces, simpler transactions and a speedier service for customers. That also includes the essential banking services upon which so many of our high street businesses and SMEs depend.

The House will know that all these reforms form part of a much broader package being implemented by the Government to support the 5.7 million SMEs in this country that are the beating heart of our economy and the backbone of our communities. With our small business plan, we are bringing down costs and using the levers of Government to back British business. In particular, we are cracking down on the scourge of late payments that shuts down the equivalent of 38 firms a day and costs the economy almost £11 billion a year. Our Commercial Payments Bill will give us the strongest laws to tackle late payments in the whole of the G7, with the Bill’s Second Reading set to take place this month; I hope it will command cross-party support.

We are also reducing the regulatory burden on our small and medium-sized businesses. Indeed, when the Prime Minister, Lord Leong and I met business owners at No. 10 North last month, we proudly accepted 14 recommendations from the small business taskforce, which has been working in partnership with the Government to reduce the bureaucracy holding British firms back. We are now making it simpler for smaller firms to bid for public contracts. We are streamlining Office for National Statistics business surveys to reduce form-filling. At the same time, we are making it easier for businesses to find support on gov.uk and helping them to report disproportionate regulations. We are delivering, too, on our “tell us once” ambition, as part of which we are pausing the Companies House profit and loss filing requirement for April 2028. I thank the Federation of Small Businesses for all its work on this agenda and in particular for its support on that decision.

Where there is an opportunity to save businesses time and money, we will seek to do that. As proof positive of that agenda, the Budget included savings of over £600 million per year on regulatory administration, with streamlined company reporting requirements and reduced reporting burdens for asset managers. A simpler home buying and selling process will also save businesses over £100 million a year.

[Nigel Huddleston (Droitwich and Evesham) (Con)]

I have to ask, was the right hon. Member listening to a different Budget from the one that I heard? I do not recognise anything he has said there. On burdens and costs imposed by regulations on business, the OBR said that the employment Bill—the unemployment Bill—will actually add to the cost of business, completely contrary to what he has just said.

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I do not want to say that the hon. Gentleman should listen a bit harder to the Chancellor when is giving a Budget, but he went into detail on that. I will expand on what the better regulation taskforce will mean.

Specifically on the employment rights agenda, we know that the Conservatives do not like it—that is not a secret—but I would simply say to the hon. Member that we have a manifesto commitment to address in particular insecurity in the workplace, including the 1 million people on zero-hours contracts. Let Conservative colleagues not forget that the premise of that particular measure is that where a person works a regular number of hours, they will receive, if they wish to, a contract for those hours—not additional costs. Additional costs are not present when someone get a contract that reflects what they are already working.

The rest of the agenda may not be popular with the Conservative party, but it is certainly popular with the country. And because of that agenda—[Interruption.] I know the Conservatives did not stick to their own manifesto commitments, but we will stick to ours. Because of that agenda, of course want to reduce burdens in other places; it is an entirely noble agenda and one that reflects the interests of British business. The hon. Member may be aware—the Chancellor did speak about this in the statement—that there is an aspiration to reduce business burdens by 25% over the course of this Parliament. That will be delivered through the new Better Regulation Executive. It brings together the power of the Treasury, the Cabinet Office and my Department to move us towards a more streamlined and proportionate regulatory system—one that spurs growth, investment and innovation across the country.

I also warmly welcome the Chancellor increasing access to finance for ambitious founders and entrepreneurs. In the Budget, he introduced a new founders relief to encourage a new wave of wealth creation. Founders and early investors will benefit from a 10% capital gains tax rate on up to £10 million of lifetime gains. Dom Hallas from Startup Coalition said:

“The chancellor has delivered the boldest action backing startups and scaleups of any government in years.”

Meanwhile, the trading allowance for people starting new ventures is being tripled from £1,000 to £3,000, and £700 million is going towards home-grown innovation, strengthening Britain’s sovereignty and ensuring that tomorrow’s technologies are developed and adopted right here in the UK.

On top of all that, the Budget gives the British Business Bank £1.4 billion of additional commercial equity capacity, allowing it to back specialist venture capital funds in strategic sectors and larger growth funds capable of writing the cheques needed to keep the UK’s fastest-growing companies scaling here. The package is expected to leverage around £4.2 billion of private capital and create 14,500 additional jobs. That builds on the landmark investments the bank has already made, backing businesses across the UK: from Optima Partners, the Edinburgh-based AI consultancy, to Pharos Marine, the Norfolk manufacturer of navigation aids for offshore wind farms and ports, to Oxford Space Systems, whose satellite antennas were launched into orbit earlier this year.

Our industrial strategy is also making a difference. It is an essential part of our ambition to reindustrialise Britain and back our own sovereign capabilities. It is delivering on industrial energy costs, reversing what we inherited from the previous Government, with the highest industrial energy costs in the developed world. We are slashing electricity bills by 25% for over 10,000 British manufacturers through the British industrial competitiveness scheme. We are cutting electricity costs for those businesses by up to £40 per MWh, bringing their costs closer into line with competitors across Europe, with eligible businesses also receiving a one-off additional payment in 2027 to cover the support that they would have been received if BICS had been in place from April this year, correcting years of Conservative failure.

We are channelling investment into the eight high growth-driving sectors of our economy, including life sciences and advanced manufacturing. The Budget confirmed over £1 billion of new life sciences investment, from Kindeva, Vertex and Convatec, backed by almost £70 million of Government funding. It gave the green light to a partnership that I am particularly proud of: a partnership with Rolls-Royce to develop its next generation of turbine engine technology here in Britain. This is the single biggest reindustrialisation opportunity that the UK has before it.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nigel Huddleston (Droitwich and Evesham) (Con)]

Two years ago when I was shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury, I labelled the then new Labour Government’s first Budget as the most “anti-business” Budget this country had ever had, and I said that the then Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Leeds West and Pudsey (Rachel Reeves), would go down in history as the “destroyer of jobs”. Some 225,000 job losses later, I am sad to say that I was right. I take no joy in saying that, because it is my constituents, and those across the country, who have paid the price. When Labour Members increased national insurance on jobs, they knew that it would increase unemployment. When they increased business rates, they knew that it would increase unemployment. When they introduced the farcically named employment Bill, they knew that it would increase unemployment. This country has paid a high price for Labour dogma.

Two years on, with a new Chancellor and a new Prime Minister, Labour Members had a golden opportunity to turn things around. But they have not. This Budget has not backed Britain, and it has not backed British business. Despite all the noise and all the promises of hope—the precise theme of today’s debate—there is very little to be positive, never mind hopeful, about in the Budget. It is just more debt, more taxes, and more unemployment. Vital decisions on welfare and defence spending have been kicked into the long grass. Dithering comes at a cost.

The Chancellor included the phrase “breathing space” in the title of this Budget and he mentioned it 13 times during his speech. That meant breathing space for the Government, not for my constituents. And speaking of my constituents, the Chancellor also said that the Budget would unlock growth “in every postcode”. Really? Not in WR9, WR11 or WR12—not in Worcestershire. There were loads of new promises, with lots of new spending and powers for cities and mayoral authorities, but sadly—as always—rural communities like mine in Worcestershire were ignored yet again. Labour could not make its disdain for rural communities any clearer.

What I found particularly grating were the constant references in the Budget statement to the supposed generosity of this Labour Government. Well, it is very easy to be generous with other people’s money. There were comments by the Chancellor about the “difficult decisions” that the Government are making. What a load of nonsense! Putting up taxes—dipping into other people’s pockets—is not a difficult decision. That is the easiest and lazy thing for any Government to do. The difficult thing is restraining spending and cutting taxes. When oh when is this Government going to recognise that there is no such thing as Government money? It is taxpayers’ money, and Government Members need to show the same level of respect for taxpayers’ hard-earned cash as they do when making spending decisions within their own household budget. They cannot even bother to tackle the out-of-control welfare spending, which will rise by another £19 billion this year to £353 billion—a sum almost identical to that raised by all income tax. The situation is farcical.

Defence spending has been kicked into the long grass. The Chancellor did not announce defence spending. He said that he would set a “target date” for 3% in 2030. A target date is not a policy or a commitment; it is just noise. Bizarrely, at the same time, Britain will end up with the highest tax burden in our history. It is forecast to increase to 37.9% of GDP next year, and to continue to rise until 2031-32. Labour’s answer? You guessed it: more taxes. The Budget confirmed a new tax on the tourism industry. Only the bizarre mindset of a Labour Minister could believe that the way to help an industry is by imposing more taxes on it. As has often been said, “If socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists.”

There are so many missed opportunities in the Budget. Retail, hospitality and leisure were crying out for support. As has been mentioned, we had proposals—which we would have been happy for the Labour party to copy—that would have taken 250,000 businesses out of paying business rates altogether, permanently. Labour’s solution was to take 70,000 businesses out temporarily, only giving back a fraction of what they had already taken away. This was a Budget of missed opportunities, and what alarms me most is the inability of Labour Members to recognise the damage they have already done, because that means they do not know how to get out of it. There is an alternative—a pro-business Conservative alternative—so bring on the election because we are looking forward to implementing that alternative at the earliest opportunity.