What time is the budget today as Rachel Reeves expected to raise minimum wage – latest news

The minimum wage rise will be the first time in nearly a decade that it has not risen faster than typical wage growth, according to a leading economist.

“This smaller rise in the minimum wage – the first time in almost a decade when it has risen no faster than typical wage growth – is sensible in the context of an expected rise in employer national insurance contributions at the same time,” said Nye Cominetti, the principal economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank.

He said the Low Pay Commission should monitor the impact of higher minimum wage rates on employment, including the risk of firms switching to self-employed labour to minimise tax bills.

The Independent will be bringing the latest updates on the Budget throughout the day.

Labour’s first budget since March 2010 is set to lay out major changes to the UK’s taxation, borrowing, and spending commitments.

Here are some things we might expect:

1. Tax rises. An increase on raise employer national insurance payments is one of a number of taxes Labour could be set to increase. This also includes Inheritance Tax and the removal of the VAT exemption on private schools.

2. Borrowing. After an adjustment to fiscal rules, Reeves is expected to have up to an extra £50bn of borrowing to invest in infrastructure building such as roads, railways and hospitals.

3. Fuel duty and winter fuel payments. Ministers have already announced plans to remove the winter fuel payment from millions of pensioners, instead introducing a means-testing system. Ministers have also faced calls not to increase fuel duty.

4. Education. Rachel Reeves is believed to have set aside £1.4 billion for crumbling schools, in a budget which she says will prioritise education and childcare. An extra £1.8 billion will expand government-funded nursery care.

5. Health. Ms Reeves is expected to announce a funding deal for the NHS which goes far beyond inflation.

Stay with us for all the latest on Ms Reeves autumn budget.

The Independent has been told that union bosses have made it clear they expect massive public sector rises in the new year “after 14 years of Tory austerity and wage constraint”.

It is another headache for the chancellor who is expected to be forced to bring in some of the biggest tax rises in history to cover a £40bn black hole in Labour’s spending plans. Ms Reeves is expected to increase employers national insurance contributions and capital gains tax among a range of measures.

The move has faced ongoing backlash from the sector, including over the disproportionate impact on already-stretched smaller, specialist schools, as well as the short timescale involved and fears of a mass exodus of pupils.

The Martin Lewis Money Saving Show returned on Tuesday (29 October), and saw the financial guru take a question about the winter fuel payment from a woman whose husband died just two weeks ago.

The woman wanted to know if she would be eligible for pension credit.

Mr Lewis said: “You have to be on an income of under £11,400 to be eligible. It’s a very tight means test and is critically underclaimed.”

Mr Lewis then revealed he will host a budget special of his show on Thursday and hopes the chancellor will join him.

He warned: “I will be talking about winter fuel payment without you chancellor, so you may as well be here. It would be a lot better.”

In what is expected to be a Budget of record-breaking tax rises involving “tough choices” to “fix public services”, Ms Reeves will hold out some hope with a rallying cry that she intends to “invest, invest, invest” to turn the country around.

The rhetoric appears to deliberately echo Tony Blair’s three priorities of “education, education, education” ahead of the 1997 election as Ms Reeves attempts to grasp the optimism of his New Labour government in what is widely expected to be a gloomy Budget.

The Independent’s Political Editor David Maddox reports:

Small business owners are “seriously concerned” by the possibility of tax rises in the Budget on Wednesday.

Some fear they will need to cut their employee headcount, including paraplanning business owner Steve Luke, 56.

“I’m seriously concerned that if the Budget is as bad as I’m expecting then we may have to reduce the workforce from nine to seven or eight,” he told PA.

Mr Luke says he is concerned the government will not view him as a “working person” in the Budget, as he takes a small salary from the business while also paying himself a dividend due to fluctuating income.

Farmer and landlord Richard Payne, 61, who owns around 500 acres of land and rents 150-200 acres for wheat, barley, oilseed rape and canola farming, says he is “extremely nervous”.

“Whilst I’m probably not going to be clobbered hard on national insurance contributions, because we don’t employ a huge number of people… I’m more worried about taxation on profit, if we make any, and also, in my case, losing agricultural property leave or business property relief on our assets,” he said.

Joy Francis, 76, the owner of two nurseries and employer of 22 people, fears the increase on employer’s national insurance contributions.

“(The Government) just doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of small businesses being the backbone of the economy and we’re not all money-grabbing people with shareholders to pay.”

Funding for Scotland must increase “immediately and significantly” in Wednesday’s budget, first minister John Swinney has said.

At a reception for business leaders on Tuesday, Mr Swinney said: “The Office for Budget Responsibility highlighted recently the potential for public investment to deliver permanent improvements in the economy.

“It is welcome that my calls for the Chancellor to amend her fiscal rules have been heard, with indications last week that there will be scope for greater investment.

“The Chancellor has the chance to choose to deliver a UK Budget that invests in our public services and supports the entrepreneurial spirit displayed in Scotland’s business sector.

“With these new rules in place, the Chancellor must use the fiscal headroom they create to deliver a Budget that immediately and significantly enhances Scotland’s resource and capital funding, enabling us to invest more in our public services and take forward the vital infrastructure projects that support economic growth, net zero, and action to tackle child poverty.”

The Scottish government recently made more than £500 million of in-year cuts, with Scotland’s finances in significant difficulty.

Mr Swinney has also called for an Acorn carbon capture and storage facility in the north east of Scotland to be funded after it was overlooked twice by successive UK governments.

Scottish first minister John Swinney has called on Rachel Reeves to use the Budget to scrap the two-child benefit limit, the Daily Record reports.