The UK's 2025 Budget tells a clear story:
stabilisation today, uncertainty tomorrow. For employers and
workforce leaders, it raises a crucial question: what future is
being built, and what future is being deferred?
In his brilliant analysis of the recent Autumn Budget, Matthew Rowbotham described it
as one that "borrows from the young". It's a striking
turn of phrase, and perhaps an uncomfortable one, because it
reframes the Budget not as a moment of fiscal housekeeping, but as
a set of deliberate (though not necessarily farsighted)
intergenerational choices.
Having given the Budget some time to be absorbed, it is worth
stepping back to consider, through a future of work lens, what it
signals beyond the immediate headlines, particularly for the
UK's future workforce, skills base and long-term
competitiveness.
