While the government may have protected themselves by dropping their income tax plans, the public reaction to the Budget has still been negative
Key takeaways
- Only 11% think Rachel Reeves doing a good job as chancellor, with just 15% saying the government is handling the economy well
- A mere 3% say economy is in a good state, with 67% saying it will get worse over next 12 months
- Britons see Budget as unfair rather than fair (48% vs 21%) and unaffordable rather than affordable (22%)
- This fairness ratio is the second worst YouGov has recorded since 2010, second only to the 2022 mini-Budget
- Just 3% think changes leave themselves and their families better off; 9% say the same for the wider country
- Increasing gambling taxes and freezing train fares most popular budget measures (82%); reducing cash ISA limits least popular (16%)
After what seems like an eternity, the 2025 Budget has finally been and gone. Having summoned the nation’s press to pitch roll income tax raises earlier in the month, such changes were subsequently abandoned by Rachel Reeves in favour of a plethora of more minor measures.
Now a new YouGov poll uncovers the public’s initial reaction to the Budget, as well as their views on Labour’s economic competence and the state of the wider economy.
What do Britons make of the Budget overall?
Britons are more than twice as likely to describe the budget as unfair (48%) than fair (21%) and are similarly likely to see it as unaffordable (47%) than affordable (22%).
This fair-unfair ratio is a distinct worsening for the government from last year’s Budget, on which Britons were split 34%-34%. In fact, it is the second worst score of any Budget YouGov has measured going back to 2010, coming behind only the infamous Truss-Kwarteng mini-Budget in 2022. (While it ties with George Osborne’s 2012’s ‘Omnishambles’ Budget in terms of the number saying ‘unfair’, fewer people describe Reeves’s offering as ‘fair’ (21%) than Osborne’s (32%).)
Half of Britons say the changes leave the country worse off (47%) as well as themselves and their families (50%). Only 9% think they are an improvement for the nation, with just 3% saying so for themselves – 31-37% think they make little difference to either.
What do Britons think of specific policies announced in the Budget?
When it comes to individual measures from within the Budget, the public are most likely to approve of increasing taxes on gambling, and freezing rail fares at their current level: 82% in both cases describe these as being the right thing to do.
Also garnering majority support are “reducing the environmental levies currently added to gas and electricity bills, reducing bills by £150 a year”, at 75%; increasing the minimum wage for over-21s (71%); the ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth £2m or more (67%); and reducing business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses (64%).
At the very bottom of the table is reducing the amount that people under 65 can put into cash ISAs to £12,000, which only 16% describe as the right thing to do.
In terms of other major policies that were trailed before the Budget, the public are divided on new pay-per-mile taxes for electric vehicles, with 38% saying they are right to introduce but 43% disagreeing.
The majority think it was wrong to scrap the two-child benefit cap (56%), with the same number saying so of freezing tax thresholds, while 50% are also unhappy with new caps on salary sacrifice schemes for pensions (compared to 21% who think it was the right thing to do).
Economic assessments
Most Britons say Rachel Reeves is doing a bad job as chancellor (59%), an increase of four points since our polling following the Spring Statement in March of this year. Just 11% think she is doing a good job (down from 14%).
Among those who voted for Labour at the 2024 election, almost twice as many say Reeves is doing a bad job (40%) as a good one (22%). This compares to a 33-28% split in March.
A mere 3% of Britons say the economy is in a good state, and just 15% think the government are doing a good job managing it. Only 7% expect the economy to improve over the next 12 months, with 18% expecting that it will stay about the same, but 67% expecting things to get worse.
People’s expectations of their own personal finances are likewise gloomy: 56% expect them to get worse over the next 12 months, while 29% expect them to remain static and only 9% think they will improve.
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Photo: Getty
