Treasury under scrutiny over possible budget leak as Healey pushes more power and spending to city halls
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John Healey’s first budget hands new fiscal powers to London mayor Sadiq Khan and other city mayors, while officials face demands to explain how details of a bank tax increase leaked before the announcement.
Chancellor John Healey delivered his first budget to the House of Commons, laying out a set of fiscal measures presented as help for households facing cost-of-living pressures and as a further transfer of authority from central government to local political figures. He announced that revenue from business rates and income tax would be retained locally, enabling London mayor Sadiq Khan and other city mayors to finance major infrastructure projects. The package also includes an increase in the small-business rates relief threshold for hospitality firms and a £10 million alcohol duty relief for smaller brewers.
Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons Treasury Committee, wrote to Treasury Permanent Secretary James Bowler and the Financial Conduct Authority, asking for an explanation of how a Bloomberg report that accurately predicted a temporary rise in bank taxes entered the public domain before the budget announcement. Hillier said the report had moved markets and called for an urgent investigation.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham defended the budget, citing measures such as a council-tax cut for 20 million households, the removal of business-rates liabilities for 70,000 firms, and a planned VAT exemption on electricity bills. He said the fiscal rules were met and expressed confidence that the economy would improve.
Opposition figures offered reactions: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he stayed away from the Commons to avoid a potential conflict, while Green Party MP Dr Ellie Chowns criticised the budget as lacking ambition on climate and wealth taxation.
The Treasury has not yet commented on the alleged leak.