Andy Burnham's first Budget hints at bold policy changes to come

Andy Burnham and Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey ahead of the Budget at 11 Downing Street (Picture: Alberto Pezzali) At this point, we’re all used to the essential elements of an Andy Burnham speech. There’s the requisite reference to hope, and the habit of ending sentences with ‘doesn’t it?’ or ‘hasn’t it?’ Then there’s that segment where he talks about his belief that the country has been heading in the wrong direction for the decades since Margaret Thatcher was in power – something he says he’s determined to put right.

Today will have been the first time much of the public heard from Burnham’s chancellor John Healey. And what they heard was… rather different. There will be no immediate, dramatic realignment of the country’s foundations to match the lofty ambitions of the PM. By the time the next Budget rolls around next year, most of us will be paying much the same taxes in much the same way, although presumably everything will be a bit more expensive.

One example – for a period earlier this year, there was chatter that council tax might be overhauled entirely and replaced with a proportional property tax based on a percentage of the home’s current value. We ended up getting nothing like that. The only council tax-related announcement was the £100 payment which will land in bank accounts of people whose homes are in tax bands A to D this winter, to help counteract the expected eye-watering January hike in energy bills. (Though that announcement was exciting enough to crash the website telling people which band they’re in.)

Want to understand more about UK politics? Hi, I’m Craig Munro, Metro’s Senior Politics Reporter. Every week I break down the latest politics stories into easy-to-understand explainers in my newsletter, Alright, Gov? This week’s edition is a big Budget special – sign up here. Craig Munro There were two reasons why the Budget wasn’t quite as radical as many people might have been expecting. One is that Healey’s role is to act as something of a counterbalance to the ambition of the prime minister and reassure the markets that the changes he talks about aren’t going to be that extreme.

The other is that the country is in a bit of a precarious place economically. Healey wants to appear serious about meeting the so-called ‘fiscal rules’ set by Rachel Reeves, which include getting the government’s current budget into the black by the end of the decade. As a result, the chancellor decided he’d focus on largely small-scale measures that would go part of the way to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis for those worst off. POLL Poll Are you happy with today's Budget?

YesCheck NoCheck I'm unsureCheck Cut through political noise and understand how the Westminster chaos actually affects your life with Metro's award-nominated politics newsletter Alright, Gov?. Email I agree to receive newsletters from Metro I agree to receive newsletters from Metro Sign UpSign UpThis site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy However, it’s worth pointing out that there were a few scattered hints of genuinely bold policy for those listening carefully.

One was Healey’s pledge to ‘begin the radical reform of energy’ which would bring down energy bills in the future. He made clear the Labour government would now prioritise cheaper, not necessarily cleaner, energy – though he said clean power would be ‘key’ to this. And the other was on one of Burnham’s very favourite topics, devolution. By the end of this decade, the chancellor said, 100% of business rates would be kept by the local authorities where they were collected by the end of the decade, along with ‘a share of income tax’ by 2028.

It may not sound like the sexiest topic, but this commitment to fiscal devolution was what Treasury figures pointed towards when asked if this was truly a Budget that sounded the death knell for – in Burnham’s words – 40 years of neoliberalism. It would, the chancellor said, allow local mayors to spend money on projects that matter to their local area, like Sadiq Khan’s Bakerloo line extension – y’know, things people notice. However, those impacts lie far in the future.

Healey’s challenge will be convincing the hard-up country that the minor moves he’s making now will be enough to carry them through to that point… and then we’ll really get cracking with the foundation-shaking radicalism. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.