What Rachel Reeves announced in the 2025 Budget

Taxes to reach an 'all-time high' as growth forecasts cut in battle to fill hole in finances

- by David McLean

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her second Budget, laying out a series of tax rises as she aims to fill a black hole in the public finances.

Ms Reeves announced tax rises amounting to £26 billion as she battles a downgrade in forecast economic growth.

More than 1.7 million people will face paying more income tax as she froze thresholds, meaning people will have to start paying the tax for the first time or be shifted into higher bands as earnings increase.

The measures contribute to a tax burden that will rise to an "all-time high" in 2030-31.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast gross domestic product would grow by 1.5% this year, an increase from its earlier 1% forecast. But it downgraded growth in 2026 from 1.9% to 1.4%, in 2027 from 1.8% to 1.5%, in 2028 from 1.7% to 1.5% and in 2029 from 1.8% to 1.5%.

In an unprecedented blunder, full details of Ms Reeves's plans were published by the OBR more than half an hour before she stood up in the Commons chamber.