Mon, 06 Oct 2025

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 Conservatives pledge £5,000 tax rebate for young home buyers

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride will say the plans will be funded by cuts to public spending worth £47bn.

* The Conservatives propose giving young people a £5,000 tax rebate in their first job, which would be redirected into a nominated savings account and used towards a house deposit.
* The party also plans to abolish business rates for high street shops, with retail, hospitality, and leisure firms exempted up to an annual limit of £110,000.
* The policies would be paid for by cutting welfare, civil service, and foreign aid spending by £47bn per year.
* The Conservatives claim this would allow them to balance the books while still meeting their existing pledges, such as reversing VAT on private school fees.
* They estimate that the business rates policy would cost around £4bn a year by 2029, and the First Job Bonus scheme would cost around £2.8bn per year.
* The party has not committed to changing the triple lock on state pensions, which guarantees an annual increase in line with inflation, wage increases, or 2.5%.
* Aid budget cuts are also planned, with the Conservatives aiming to reduce foreign aid spending from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3% by 2027.
* The Institute for Economic Affairs has welcomed some of the proposals but warned that age-related spending such as pensions will need to be addressed.
* Opposition groups have criticized the proposed cuts to welfare and aid spending, with Romilly Greenhill calling them "reckless" and "morally indefensible".
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