Autumn Budget 2025: What does it mean down on the farm?

The increase in the living wage and minimum wage of between 4.1% and 8.5% will cause difficulties, not least because of the ratchet effect which they will exert to all pay scales, and it seems unlikely to help reverse the current rise in youth unemployment. 

Indeed, when we look at last year’s IHT changes and this year surcharges we seem to be stepping straight back to a regime from forty years ago. When one couples that with the stealth taxes from freezing allowances, we really are looking at an old fashioned “tax and spend” approach from that era. Alternatively, the extra tax on rental income, coupled with previous changes and the recent passing of the Renters’ Act can be seen as further steps in a campaign to eradicate another Labour bugbear, the private landlord.

The change in the cash ISA allowance, will also hit some taxpayers, although at least pensioners do get preferential treatment, with the £ 8000 reduction in annual allowance only applies to those under 65. 

Finally, the much-leaked review of council tax bands (or the beginnings of a “wealth tax”) should not be overlooked. The initial fears that it would involve a council tax hike for all those in properties in bands F to H seem to have been overstated. 

Instead, there will be a “targeted valuation exercise” to identify properties over £2m, which will then be revalued to identify those currently worth in excess of £2m – at the lower end  this may be of limited relevance in rural areas, but those with values in excess of this amount will be charged between £2500 and £7500 per annum. 

The tax will be payable by homeowners rather than occupiers (which will not sit comfortably with the current council tax administration) and “The government will also consult on a full set of reliefs and exemptions, as well as proposed rules for more complex ownership structures including companies, funds, trusts and partnerships. 

The consultation will also cover treatment of those who are required to live in a property as a condition of their job”. In itself this will only affect a small number of rural taxpayers, but the greater concern is that this might be the thin end of the wealth tax wedge – once a tax is established in principle there is always a temptation to extend it in future.

At one stage in the days leading up to the Budget it seemed that the Chancellor would grasp the nettle of sharing the tax pain, even to the extent of going back on manifesto promises.