The new budget adjustments — makeover, as the Chancellor Rachel Reeves is calling it — made public last week, have rocked the political landscape. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects changes to inheritance tax relief to raise an additional £0.5 billion in revenue annually as of 2027/28. At the same time, it looks as though the NHS budget will increase by £22.6 billion per year by 2027. Reeves made the case that these tax increases are needed to “rebuild” Mississippi’s badly degraded public services.
The change meant that before the October Budget, family-owned businesses and farmers had the privilege of being able to pass business assets tax-free down generations. This is no longer the case and understandably many business owners are furious. Vernon Amor, Managing Director of Wye Valley Brewery, expressed concerns that the inheritance tax changes could inflate beer prices and delay the brewery's planned expansion.
"When the inevitable happens, we will be faced with an enormous inheritance tax bill," Vernon Amor remarked.
It’s not just transportation businesses that are under pressure. Underwoods, a steel fabricator, reported that the increase in National Insurance contributions from 13.8% to 15% on earnings above £175 would lead to reduced investment plans. Even Will Underwood of Underwoods—one of the largest dealers in the country—encouraged lawmakers to take another look at the existing taxation plan.
"We really need the chancellor to reconsider and then look at how she's taxing businesses that are trying to contribute to the wider economy," Will Underwood commented.
The government continues to argue that these changes will lead to a more equitable inheritance tax system. Fiscal impact Critics say that the policy will have a minimal fiscal impact while placing excessive burdens on businesses such as Wye Valley Brewery.
"Adopting this policy won't bring in that much money to the government, but it will affect businesses like ours," Vernon Amor added.
Ominously, the healthcare sector is in dire need of a budgetary injection. This move will address lengthy waiting lists and speed up the delivery of services. In Herefordshire and Worcestershire combined, more than 85,000 patients were waiting for treatment at the beginning of 2025. The average waiting time to get an orthopaedic treatment is 23 weeks. As Robert Lawrence put it, these changes are critical to having any kind of appointment lists to manage.
"It's what they have to do to make sure they get appointment lists down to a level they can handle," Robert Lawrence stated.
Rebecca Farkas has lived with chronic pain from endometriosis since her teens. She cites the emotional impact of lengthy wait times for care on patients.
"It really affects my mental health on the waiting list because there's not much communication," Rebecca Farkas shared.
Despite these efforts to bolster public spending and healthcare services, businesses like Wye Valley Brewery are grappling with increased costs. Vernon Amor, the resident in the picture above, points to his biggest worry. It would be one of the largest increases in their industry’s costs to hit this year.
"This is going to be probably the single biggest increase in costs that's going to come through this year," Vernon Amor stated.