John Healey has asked junior Treasury staff – including IT workers and apprentices – to send him ideas for his October budget, saying he will listen to all suggestions regardless of grade or profession.
The chancellor’s unorthodox approach comes as he faces a tricky autumn with expected inflation rises, sluggish growth and potential cuts from other departments to fund extra defence spending.
Healey, who was Andy Burnham’s surprise choice for chancellor, is understood to have written to staff at the Treasury campuses in London, Norwich, Leeds and Darlington asking them to send him ideas.
He said he did not only want to hear from economists but from staff not traditionally involved in policymaking. Those with the most interesting ideas will be invited to pitch to Healey in person.
A Treasury source said the move was designed to challenge “traditional Whitehall hierarchies” and that the chancellor was particularly looking for ideas focused on spreading growth around the country and boosting local industries, as well as measures to cut costs for families and businesses.
Healey has told staff he wants “everyone from apprentices, IT staff and junior officials to senior economists and private secretaries” to contribute to the exercise, and that he hopes October’s budget will include some of the ideas from the brainstorm.
A Treasury spokesperson said: “Just as we want growth in every postcode, we want ideas from every postcode. The chancellor wants to harness the talent in the Treasury and across the country to improve our communities and high streets, and give people and businesses a bit more breathing space.”
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Healey told Sky News on Friday that this next phase was a “continuity of a Labour government with a change of leader”, saying he would not sacrifice fiscal discipline. He said a Burnham government “simply can’t deal with the problems we face as a country by maxing out the country’s credit card”.
Healey quit as defence secretary under Keir Starmer over a disagreement about defence spending, including cash for the defence investment plan and the timeline to increase defence spending to 3.5% of GDP. As chancellor, however, he has played down the prospect of setting out that timeline by the October budget.
“Fiscal discipline has been the bedrock of the government that I was part of for the first couple of years, as a Labour government since July 2024,” he told Sky. “We build on that, but it is not easy. It is not easy in a world in which you see global conflict, increasing dangers.”
The Financial Times has reported that Healey will most likely use the budget to fill the gap of about £5bn in the defence investment plan, partially funded by departmental cuts of about £1.2bn a year.
Burnham has said he will stick to Labour’s manifesto, which promises no increases in income tax, national insurance or VAT, though he said in a recent interview that the public needed to be realistic about what needed to be funded and how difficult more spending would be.
