Chancellor John Healey has admitted that the Government cannot shield people from all the financial pressures they face, just hours after delivering his first Budget. Speaking to Sky News following Wednesday's financial statement, he acknowledged the limits of what ministers can do to ease the cost-of-living squeeze on households.
He said: “We can't remove all the rises, we can't remove all the pressures that people are facing.”
Defending the £100 energy payment
The admission came as the Chancellor defended a £100 energy payment for roughly 20 million households in England, designed to provide some relief as families continue to contend with rising bills. Mr Healey insisted the Government would act where it could to help people cope with the financial strain.
He said: “That's an important payment. Now, you can't remove all the rises, you can't remove all the pressures that people are facing. But my aim is to say, look where we can, we'll act, we'll give people a bit of breathing space and [we're] doing that with this household energy payment.”
Funding and energy policy shift
Mr Healey said the Government was asking banks to help fund the energy payment through an additional tax on the sector over the next 15 months. He also insisted the Budget marked a change in direction for energy policy, declaring that the priority would be to bring down costs for consumers.
He said: “What I signalled today, very clearly, [is] that from this point, British energy policy will be about getting cheaper bills.”
Budget ambition and economic challenges
The Chancellor rejected suggestions that the Budget lacked ambition, despite Prime Minister Andy Burnham's pledge to break with decades of economic orthodoxy. Asked whether the Budget matched Mr Burnham's promise to tear up 40 years of neoliberalism, Mr Healey replied: “I would say that's wrong.”
He pointed to immediate measures to help households alongside longer-term plans to reform Britain's energy system and remove levies from household bills. However, his admission that ministers cannot remove every pressure facing the public highlights the limits of the Government's attempts to ease the cost-of-living crisis.
The Chancellor also declined to criticise US President Donald Trump directly over the war in Iran, which has driven up energy costs and added to the pressure on the public finances. Asked about the conflict, he said: “Well, the single best economic policy for Britain would be peace in the Middle East and an end to the Iran conflict, and also the end of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.”
He added that Mr Trump was “probably the one man that can bring those parties together”. The Government is now banking on targeted support and longer-term changes to Britain's energy system to ease the pressure on households, rather than promising to protect people from every increase in living costs.
