Industry Reactions To The 2026 UK Spring Budget Statement

The Chancellor presented the Spring Forecast in Parliament where she spoke on how the government intends to ease living costs while keeping the economy stable. Inflation, borrowing, and interest on national debt are all expected to go down, while investment is rising. Inflation is predicted to return to target in the second half of the year, earlier than forecast in November.

Earlier Budget decisions are helping this outlook. Energy bills were lowered by £150, and rail fares were frozen. These actions are expected to reduce inflation by 0.4% in 2026-27. The Chancellor said her plan protects households against uncertainty and aims to make the economy more secure.

Families will benefit from several policies. Millions of workers will see the minimum wage rise. 30 hours of free childcare will be fully funded, free breakfast clubs are being offered, and the two-child limit on family support has been removed. The goal is to give households extra support while prices adjust.

How Has Borrowing Changed?

Borrowing has gone down by nearly £18 billion compared to the Autumn forecast. This year’s borrowing is expected to be the lowest in 6 years and below the G7 average for the first time in 22 years. Interest on national debt is projected to go down by almost £4 billion next year, allowing more money to go to public services such as the NHS and public transport.

The government has cut unnecessary spending. The money taken from the contingency fund for daily spending is at the lowest level in almost 10 years, showing public finances are being managed carefully. Headroom against the stability rule has risen to almost £24 billion. Education is also seeing extra funding, including £3.5 billion for the Department for Education in 2028-29 and over £1.8 billion for devolved governments through the Barnett formula.

What Does The Forecast Say About The Economy?

The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts GDP per person will grow faster than expected, with 5.6% growth over the Parliament. Britain grew faster than any other European G7 country in 2025. On average, people are expected to be over £1,000 better off after accounting for inflation.

Jon Hope, Interim CEO of CodeBase, said: “In a period of global uncertainty, stability has real value. Today’s Spring Statement signals a steadier approach to fiscal policy – a welcome moment of predictability for founders and investors after years of churn. With inflation easing to around 3% and a historic £30.4bn January budget surplus, there are signs the economic backdrop is beginning to settle.”

He added: “The UK’s startup and tech ecosystem doesn’t need constant new announcements. It needs clarity, consistency and follow-through on pro-growth commitments. Ultimately, the credibility of today’s statement will rest on delivery. Effective economic policy should inform with clarity, educate through transparency, and inspire confidence through action.”

Industry Reactions To Spring Statement 2026

Experts across industries share their thoughts on the recent Statement, and this is what they’ve said…

Our Experts:

• Rav Hayer, MD of UK and Ireland and Head of BFSI, Thoughtworks
• Marlon Oliver, SVP EMEA, Flexera
• Sam North, Co-founder and CEO, SCALE
• Nishith Rastogi, Founder and CEO, Locus
• Ollie Whiting, CEO, La Fosse

Rav Hayer, MD of UK and Ireland and Head of BFSI, Thoughtworks

“Stability on its own doesn’t restart a stalled economy. After years of mismanagement, the UK is still wrestling with a 30% drop in import‑export performance and a prolonged productivity drag. Businesses aren’t waiting for the ‘good times’ to return, because they won’t arrive by themselves. Stability without decisive measures simply preserves stagnation. The UK needs bold levers on productivity, investment, skills and modernisation – otherwise this becomes another year of sitting tight while competitors accelerate.”

Marlon Oliver, SVP EMEA, Flexera

“The UK Spring Statement reinforces a climate of spending restraint at a time when technology estates are more complex than they have ever been.

“Many organisations are running hybrid environments built across multiple SaaS providers and cloud platforms. Contracts signed during rapid growth cycles remain in place, while AI initiatives add new consumption-based cost layers on top. Without strong licence management and cloud cost controls, it becomes difficult to understand true total spend.

“In a constrained year, technology leaders will be expected to show that digital programmes improve efficiency at the estate level, not just at the application level. That means better visibility, clearer ownership of spend and stronger alignment between finance and IT.”

Sam North, Co-founder and CEO, SCALE

“A “boring” Spring Statement is not what’s needed. Stability is welcome, but now we need acceleration – we can’t just sit tight for another six months.

“The Autumn Budget gave us hope, with the ‘Call for Evidence on Tax Support for Entrepreneurs’. This closed on 28th February and what was needed was an immediate package of measures to help scaleups power ahead.

“The Chancellor has missed a trick by not bringing in new policies today. I fear any momentum will be lost and Britain’s fastest growing small businesses will struggle to have the economic impact we know they’re capable of.

“Skilled people are a vital ingredient required to scale, but building teams has become harder at precisely the moment we need businesses to step up.

“Founders have been clear: simplify the system, reward long-term growth, and make it easier to hire. Time-limited Employer NI relief could transform the outlook for job creation across the SME ecosystem. But the cost per hire has shot up while inflation and tighter margins have reduced room for expansion.

“Extending incentives like EIS/SEIS for follow-on growth rounds seems like another missed opportunity. More deliberate investment is needed into high-growth companies, particularly those led by women and underrepresented entrepreneurs, and when capital markets are cautious, individual investors need a nudge.

“Acceleration won’t come from sitting on our hands until the autumn, as many businesses did last year. It will come from the Government proactively creating conditions for calculated risk-taking and from capital backing ambition. Once these are aligned, we can move beyond stabilising, and start scaling.”

Nishith Rastogi, Founder and CEO, Locus

“Today’s Spring Statement underlines a steady but unspectacular growth outlook and offers little meaningful cost relief for retailers. That leaves businesses grappling with the same challenge as the past year – limited pricing power alongside stubbornly high operating costs.

“When consumer demand grows slowly, retailers cannot easily pass on higher fulfilment or delivery expenses. Those costs have to be absorbed somewhere in the value chain.

“That pressure quickly shows up in fulfilment and delivery economics. In a year of steady rather than strong growth, retailers will pay closer attention to how efficiently orders can move through their networks, because that is where margin can erode fastest.”

Ollie Whiting, CEO, La Fosse

“The Spring Statement was as predicted – cautious, with no major new spending or skills measures announced. This means the implications for employers, tech industry, and the broader workforce come more from what wasn’t announced, rather than what was.”

Implications of the Spring Statement on general hiring confidence:

“Because the Spring Statement maintained a tight fiscal stance, in line with Reeves’ emphasis on maintaining stability in public finances amid global uncertainty, employers are likely to continue prioritising capability growth over headcount growth.

“The underlying economic picture is more nuanced than headlines suggest. January’s record budget surplus, and stronger‑than‑expected tax receipts, show there is resilience in the system. But because that fiscal headroom is not necessarily being used for stimulus or skills investment, employers are unlikely to interpret this resilience as a signal to accelerate hiring.

“Instead, the government’s tight stance reinforces a cautious environment. That typically translates into slower discretionary hiring, longer approval cycles and greater scrutiny on return on investment for new roles.

“That being said, at La Fosse we find that hiring confidence is increasingly shaped by productivity strategy. Boards are asking what capability they need to compete in an AI‑enabled economy, a point that aligns with Reeves’ commitment today to backing economic stability and future growth, not simply how many people they should add to a workforce.

“As a result of the Statement, we are therefore likely to see fewer broad‑based hiring waves and more targeted recruitment in areas such as AI, data, cyber security and automation. Generally, organisations will also continue to prioritise internal upskilling in some of these areas over volume external hiring, to see greater productivity and output from the existing workforce.”

A missed opportunity to boost youth employment:

“Unemployment levels were mentioned in today’s Statement with the OBR’s updated forecast showing unemployment expected to peak and then fall in 2026, yet the underlying challenges, particularly for young people, are yet to be clearly addressed.

“Youth unemployment remains materially higher than the national average, with ONS figures showing 16‑ to 24‑year‑old unemployment sitting in the mid‑teens as a percentage. Reeves has already set out a Youth Guarantee, promising that any young person out of work for 18 months will be offered paid work, an apprenticeship or a college place, but today’s Statement did not expand on that commitment.

“Simultaneously, our experience tells us that businesses are struggling to find AI, data and automation capability – which is important for sustainable economic growth. Although the government’s existing direction of travel on levy flexibility gives businesses greater freedom to use their apprenticeship levy to upskill existing employees, as well as create alternative pathways for early career talent, the absence of new measures today means employers will continue to push for stronger support for AI and automation investment.

“This is where I see huge potential: the introduction of modern, AI‑focused apprenticeships and training routes could simultaneously reduce youth unemployment and close capability gaps. The UK has a real opportunity to improve productivity while broadening access to high‑value careers for young people.

“The Chancellor stated her intention to back innovation and growth in the coming fiscal announcements. AI‑focused apprenticeships could align well with the direction she has signalled – even though they were not included today.”

What Ollie thinks was missing from the Spring Statement:

“Given Reeves’ decision not to introduce new investment incentives today, keeping the Statement deliberately limited in scope, if anything is missing from the Spring Statement for me, it’s a more ambitious productivity agenda linked to capital investment.

“Businesses have already shifted from headcount growth to output growth. Boards are asking us how to deliver more value with the same or fewer people through automation, AI deployment and process redesign. That structural shift is happening irrespective of policy.

“What would materially accelerate UK productivity is stronger and more targeted incentives for capital expenditure, particularly in digital infrastructure, AI systems and automation. The United States has been explicit in backing this transition, both through fiscal incentives and through the sheer scale of private sector investment. This is something I hope to see as part of her commitment to supporting innovation and AI.

“One of the very few clear economic advantages of the UK operating outside the European Union is greater flexibility over fiscal and regulatory decision‑making. That autonomy gives us the ability to move faster and more decisively in support of productivity and investment than many of our peers. From a business perspective, it can be frustrating if that flexibility is not fully utilised.

“If we want to unlock sustained GDP expansion, we need to make investing in productivity‑enhancing technology as attractive as possible. Without that, we risk talking about growth without fully enabling it.”