Healey set to raise taxes on banks in the Budget
Two separate outlets report that John Healey plans to raise taxes on banks in the coming Budget. The Guardian's business live blog on Friday morning said he was poised to increase the levy on lenders, and a second report carried the same claim under the headline “UK's Healey Plans to Raise Bank Taxes”. A third headline described a “Budget bank tax raid”, and all three rest on the same underlying reporting. None of the reports gives a figure, a mechanism (a profits surcharge, a balance-sheet levy or changed loss-offset rules) or a date for the change. The Treasury has not confirmed the plan on the record in anything we checked. The FTSE 100 closed on Friday at 10,881.9, up 0.38 per cent.
Banks are profitable, concentrated in a few large firms and short of public sympathy, which makes them an easy source of revenue when public finances are tight. The industry's standard reply is that a bigger bill means less lending and wider margins and fees for customers, so the cost may not stay with shareholders.
You are unlikely to pay the tax directly, since it would fall on company profits rather than current accounts. After the Budget, watch your savings rate and mortgage pricing, and check how much of your pension or tracker fund is held in bank shares.
A headline with no number is a trial balloon, and the City will spend the weeks before the Budget arguing the cost back onto customers. The sharpest open question is which of the possible mechanisms is chosen, because that decides who really pays.
DailyDrop U.K. edition No. 13 · Morning · SAT., OCT. 17, 2026