Chancellor Rachel Reeves declined to be drawn on any tax hikes ahead of the autumn Budget amid reports officials are looking at changes to inheritance taxes
Rachel Reeves has insisted she wanted to “get our economy firing off all cylinders” – but declined to be drawn on any Budget tax raise.
The Chancellor’s comments came as new GDP figures showed the economy grew by 0.3% in the three months to June. While the number fell short of the 0.7% recorded in the first three months of 2025 it was stronger than the 0.1% widely expected by economists.
Responding on Thursday, Ms Reeves said “the economy beat expectations in the second quarter of this year”. But speaking at a construction site in Doncaster, the Chancellor said “there’s still more to do to make sure that people in all parts of the country benefit” from growth. She added: “My number one priority as Chancellor, to get our economy firing off all cylinders so that working people in all parts of the country will feel the benefits of that economic growth.” It comes after the Chancellor gave an update on wealth tax calls as pressure mounts to target richest Brits.
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Quizzed on whether taxes will have to increase in the autumn, Ms Reeves told reporters: “We’ll wait for the official forecast from the Office of Budget Responsibility, and we’ll make those decisions in the round.”
Earlier this week it was reported the Chancellor is looking at changes to inheritance tax in an attempt to plug a hole in the public finances. Officials are said to be examining whether to tighten rules around the gifting of money and assets before someone dies. But no decisions have been made.
Ms Reeves added: “Any decision around taxation is a … decision for the Budget, and I’ll make those announcements. We haven’t even set the date yet for the Budget, but the key focus of the Budget is going to be to build on numbers that we’ve seen today to boost productivity and growth and prosperity all across the country.”
ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: “Growth slowed in the second quarter after a strong start to the year. The economy was weak across April and May, with some activity having been brought forward to February and March ahead of stamp duty and tariff changes, but then recovered strongly in June.
“Across the second quarter as a whole, growth was led by services, with computer programming, health and vehicle leasing growing.”
Responding to reports of an inheritance tax change yesterday, a Treasury spokesperson said: “The best way to strengthen public finances is by growing the economy – which is our focus. Changes to tax and spend policy are not the only ways of doing this, as seen with our planning reforms, which are expected to grow the economy by £6.8bn and cut borrowing by £3.4bn.
“We are committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible, which is why at last autumn’s budget, we protected working people’s payslips and kept our promise not to raise the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, employee national insurance or VAT.”
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