Healey’s attempt to provide ‘breathing space’ gives rich almost as much as poor, says Resolution Foundation Business live – latest updates Budget 2026: what it means for your wallet, your mortgage and your pay John Healey delivered a “scattergun” budget that did little to boost living standards and left Britain facing “a painful second half” of the parliament, a leading economic thinktank has warned. The Resolution Foundation said on Thursday that measures to ease household gas and electricity costs would still leave energy bills higher this year than during the last energy shock. Continue reading...
‘Scattergun’ budget will still leave Britons facing higher energy bills, says thinktank

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Treasury denies Healey plan to cut welfare bill before election, claiming his comments were misinterpreted – UK politics live
Asked earlier if there would be a cut to the welfare bill before the next election, the chancellor said: ‘There will be a reduction in the benefits bill’ John Healey has denied postponing difficult decisions on the welfare system, insisting the government is making changes “now”. Thinktanks and opposition parties have made this claim. But, when this was put to Healey in an interview on GB News, he replied: This was a broken system. And two years ago we started putting back in place face-to-face assessments. We’ve changed terms of universal credit, so people don’t have to brand themselves as too sick to work. So, those are changes we’re making now. But in the long run, as I’ve argued, and the prime minister has said, too, we have to bring the cost of benefits down. Robinson: Let’s take welfare if we could. £19bn up in the year ahead. That’s the entire police budget for England and Wales.

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