Budgets are always significant moments for any government. They tell us where the money is going, what the immediate priorities are and, perhaps most importantly, what ministers believe needs to change.
Watching my former parliamentary colleague and friend John Healey deliver his first Budget as Chancellor this week, I was struck by the balance he was attempting to achieve: providing some immediate relief for households and businesses while beginning to set out a longer-term direction for the country.
John knows the pressures facing communities like those we both represented in Yorkshire. The cost of living remains a daily concern for families, while businesses are navigating considerable uncertainty. The Budget’s measures on energy bills, investment, housing and local economic growth are intended to respond to those challenges.
But what interested me most was what the Budget tells us about the Government’s bigger ambitions — and, crucially, what is still to come.
Two big questions for the Government
Beyond the individual announcements, I think two fundamental questions are emerging at the heart of Andy Burnham’s Government.
How do we create genuine opportunity for people who have been left behind? And how do we change the way government works so that it can actually deliver?
These are closely connected challenges, and two forthcoming pieces of work could prove particularly important in answering them.
The first is Alan Milburn’s review of young people and work, with its final recommendations expected next month. The second is the Government’s wider ambition to rewire the state, changing how public services operate, how decisions are made and how resources reach communities.
The Milburn Review is examining one of the country’s most pressing challenges: the number of young people outside education, employment and training, particularly those facing health-related barriers.
This is about much more than getting young people into their first job. It is about the opportunities available throughout childhood, the relationship between education and employers, access to healthcare and whether local economies can offer meaningful routes into work.
Through my work with The Purpose Coalition, I regularly hear from businesses, universities and community organisations about the barriers young people face. Often, the problem isn’t a lack of ambition or ability. It is that the support, connections and opportunities they need simply aren’t there, or aren’t joined up.
That is why the Milburn Review matters. Its recommendations could help shape a more coordinated approach to opportunity, rather than expecting individual government departments to solve interconnected problems independently.
Changing how government gets things done
The second challenge is equally important.
For years, governments of different political colours have announced ambitious policies, only to encounter the same difficulties in delivering them. Fragmented services, short-term funding arrangements and decisions taken too far away from the communities affected can all get in the way.
John’s Budget offered some early indications of how the Government wants to address this.
The commitment to give mayors a greater share of locally generated tax revenues, alongside £100 million for a Local Apprenticeship Service, points towards greater local responsibility. The Chancellor also announced plans to protect preventative spending through new departmental spending arrangements at the next Spending Review.
That last commitment particularly caught my attention.
During my time in Parliament, I saw how often public services were left responding to problems that could have been addressed much earlier. Whether in health, housing, education or employment, failing to intervene early can have enormous consequences for individuals and place further pressures on public finances.
Prevention is not simply about spending more. It is about understanding where earlier, better-coordinated support can improve outcomes and avoid greater costs further down the line.
Of course, changing the machinery of government is easier said than done. Devolution needs to be accompanied by accountability, sustainable funding and the capacity to deliver locally. Digital reform must make services easier to access, rather than simply shifting administrative burdens elsewhere.
These are questions the Government’s longer-term plans will need to answer.
Why local voices matter
This is also why I am particularly interested in the work we are undertaking through The Purpose Coalition’s Opportunity & Place Commission, which I co-chair with Justine Greening.
Our discussions across the country bring together employers, universities, local authorities, parliamentarians and community organisations to understand what is holding communities back and what is already working.
One message comes through consistently: national policy cannot operate in isolation from local realities.
A young person struggling to access an apprenticeship, a family facing poor transport connections or an employer unable to recruit the skills they need may all be experiencing different aspects of the same underlying problem.
Government has an important role, but it cannot address these challenges alone. Businesses, education providers, local government and the voluntary sector must be central to developing and delivering the solutions.
The Government’s focus on devolution creates an opportunity to make those relationships more effective, provided local experience genuinely shapes national decisions.
The next chapter matters
There will understandably be considerable scrutiny of John’s Budget, particularly whether its measures provide enough relief for households and how the Government intends to manage the difficult financial choices ahead.
But I suspect we will look back on this period as being shaped by more than one fiscal statement.
The Milburn Review, the Government’s response to welfare reform, the plans to rewire the state and the forthcoming Spending Review could collectively define its approach to two of the biggest issues facing the country: how we widen opportunity, and how we make government better at delivering it.
The challenge will be connecting those ambitions. There is little point creating new pathways into employment if young people cannot access the transport, healthcare or support they need to take advantage of them. Equally, changing government structures will mean little unless people experience better services and stronger opportunities in their everyday lives.
Having served alongside John, I know these are issues he has engaged with throughout his political career. His first Budget has begun to establish the financial and policy framework. The next few months should tell us much more about how the Government intends to turn its longer-term ambitions into practical change.
And for me, that is where the most interesting conversation now lies.
