Martin Lewis delivers his Budget predictions after meeting chancellor
Martin Lewis has delivered his prediction of what will be in the government’s Budget next week after a meeting with John Healey.
The Money Saving Expert founder, whose thoughts on the Budget have been taken on board by previous chancellors, said Mr Healey “listened and took notes and didn’t give much away” ahead of next week's major fiscal event.
He said he was “confident” there would be an intervention package for the worst-off to help them tackle the 25 per cent rise in energy prices forecast for January.
Mr Lewis told The New Statesman that this was “based on nothing else other than instinct, it would be unthinkable that a Labour government did not put that package in”.
He thinks the package could double the £150 warm home discount to cover the difference for people on low incomes. Mr Lewis also said standing charges on energy bills might be scrapped – a prediction he made prior to Andy Burnham saying he was considering this on Wednesday.
Mr Lewis said this would be “the most popular thing” that the government could do and is among his three asks, along with reversing plans to freeze the student loan repayment threshold, and ensuring that any small earnings above state pension payments won’t leave retirees with less take-home pay.
The financial expert said the Budget had become a more important event for him in recent years as government finances worsened and there were more policies affecting day-to-day life on offer.
Mr Lewis, who knew in advance that Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were planning to cut winter fuel payments, said he had met with more cabinet ministers than he used to.
Asked if he messages Mr Healey, he said: “I have many ministers’ and shadow ministers’ WhatsApps, like most journalists do, right? I use them very sparingly, but I do get messages.”
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He said Mr Burnham’s early promises on the cost-of-living, such as cutting the VAT on electricity bills, were “totemic” rather than practical, but still praised the strategy.
“The problem is, if you’re going to front up that you’re going to do cost-of-living, in a Budget people expect bigger. The totems aren’t enough in a Budget. And there aren’t that many cost-free solutions out there. So I think that is the great difficulty for them.”
Experts have predicted several tax rises and cuts as Mr Burnham warned of a “challenging” Budget after inflation reached a five-month high in August.
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