Bromsgrove MP speaks on Chancellor's Spring Statement

Bradley Thomas, MP for Bromsgrove responded after the Spring Statement on March 3 was delivered which included revised economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

The latest projections show economic growth has been revised down.

In March 2025, the OBR forecast growth of 1.9 per cent for 2026.

That figure has now been cut to 1.1 per cent.

Growth is expected to peak at 1.6 per cent in 2027 and 2028 before falling to 1.5 per cent in 2029 and 2030.

Bradley said: “Today, the Chancellor claimed the Government has the ‘right economic plan,’ but this should have been the moment to change course.

“Economic growth has been halved for the year, unemployment is forecast to be the highest since the pandemic and welfare spending is up.

“She should have cut welfare spending and ended the Government’s tax assault on businesses to get Britain working again.

“Instead, the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, which sounded like it was written by ChatGPT, was from a parallel universe. It simply did not reflect what I know my constituents in Bromsgrove and the Villages feel. It was a speech detached from reality.

“A stronger country requires a stronger economy. To achieve this, the Government must cut welfare spending, stop punishing businesses with ever higher taxes and allow them to create jobs and the economic growth our country desperately needs.”

The forecasts are lower than projections published in March 2024.

Unemployment is also expected to rise, reaching 5.3 per cent in 2026. The OBR revised up its forecasts for 2026, 2027 and 2028.

Bradley attributed the increase to what he described as Government tax rises and the Employment Rights Act, which he said had made work more expensive.

The statement also revealed total welfare spending is expected to increase by £18 billion this year to £333 billion, rising further to £406.9 billion by 2030-31.

Meanwhile, taxes as a share of GDP are forecast to increase from 34.5 per cent in 2024-25 to 38.5 per cent by the end of the forecast period, a historic high.

Real household disposable income growth is expected to slow towards the end of the Parliament, falling from 1.1 per cent in 2025 to 0.7 per cent in 2029.

Housing projections were also highlighted, with net additions to the UK housing stock expected to fall from an average of 260,000 a year in the early 2020s to 220,000 in 2026-27, despite an 85 per cent increase in housing targets for Bromsgrove and the surrounding villages.