Budget a boost for children, high streets and public services say Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough MPs
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ second budget has been given the thumbs up by the three MPs who represent most of the North Northants area.
As well as Ms Reeves laying out a series of tax rises to fill a ‘black hole’ in the public finances, she announced a series of measures aimed at helping people struggling with the cost of living.
Taxes will be raised on mansions and landlord-owned properties with the two-child cap being reversed and business rates lowered for retail, hospitality and leisure properties.
MP for Corby and East Northants Lee Barron said: “Lifting the two-child cap has been shown to be the most effective way to reduce child poverty, and that is crucial for our kids to have the best start in life.
“This decision by our Labour Government is much-needed boost for hundreds of families here in Corby and East Northamptonshire.
“Tackling child poverty is a moral imperative, but it is also an investment in this country’s future.”
The Labour MP also welcomed further budget announcements made by Ms Reeves including the rise in wages for those on the lowest incomes and the freezes on rail fares.
He said: “It’s not the benefit cap alone that puts families in poverty, it’s also poor wages. Work should be the route out of poverty, not a lifetime trapped in it.
“That is why I welcome the rise in the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage, providing a pay rise for over 20,000 workers in Northamptonshire, and meaning that the world of work offers a real reward for those doing a hard day’s work.”
Gen Kitchen, MP for Wellingborough and Rushden, said: “This is a budget that delivers for the hard-working people of Wellingborough and Rushden.
"We’re cutting child poverty by scrapping the two-child limit, which could benefit around 2,930 children in our constituency.
"We’re cutting bills with £150 off energy costs, boosting pay for around 20,300 Northamptonshire workers with an increase to the minimum wage, and we’re backing our high streets with permanent business rates cuts for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, benefiting around 3,540 properties in North Northamptonshire.
"The Chancellor has delivered a budget that supports local businesses and families, while protecting the NHS."
Rosie Wrighting MP for Kettering said: “When I knock on doors, constituents tell me they want to see investment in our NHS, support for schools and action to tackle the cost of living crisis.
"That is exactly what this budget does by choosing to invest while Reform and the Conservatives would choose decline. “We are building a stronger, fairer country where child poverty falls, people’s lives feel better off and they can reply on public services in every corner of Britain.”
Rachel Reeves’ 2025 budget
Income tax thresholds will be frozen until 2030, pulling more people into paying the tax for the first time, and others into paying a higher rate, as wages rise.
A new £2,000 cap limit will be set from 2029 that people can put into their private pension pot – a salary sacrifice – before it incurs tax.
People who own homes worth more than £2 million will be subject to a ‘high-value council tax surcharge’ dubbed the mansion tax.
Landlords will face higher taxes on property savings and dividend income by two percentage points, and an additional rate of tax on property and savings income by two percentage points.
Business taxes for more than 750,000 retail hospitality and leisure properties will go down but higher rates will be paid on properties worth more than £500,000, including the warehouses used by ‘online giants’.
Drivers of electric vehicles will have to pay 3p per mile under a new tax.
And gambling companies will pay bigger levies, in a bid to deter people from online betting.
The controversial two-child cap is being scrapped from April 2026.
In a nod to commuters fuel duty and rail fares will frozen for a year, but ‘luxury vehicles’ will no longer be available on The Motability scheme.
Savers will be encouraged to switch from cash Isas to stocks and shares instead.
The Chancellor said energy bills would go down by scrapping the ECO (Energy Company Obligation) scheme.