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Autumn Budget 2025: what would you do to tax and spend?

Nesta at Conservative Party Conference
7 Oct 2025

This event took place on Tuesday 7 October. You can watch the recording below.

Event recording

The opinions expressed in this event recording are those of the speaker. For more information, view our full statement on external contributors.

Should the Chancellor raise taxes in the budget and, if so, which ones?

Nesta and the Institute for Fiscal Studies have developed Be the Chancellor - an interactive tool that allows anyone to confront the big public finance choices.

At the Conservative Party Conference we explored the key choices and trade-offs facing the government. We hosted an expert panel consisting of Tim Leunig, Chief Economist at Nesta, Robert Colvile, Director at Centre for Policy Studies and Columnist for The Sunday Times, Councillor Abi Brown OBE, Conservative councillor for the Meir Park ward and deputy leader of the LGA Conservative Group, and Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. The event will be chaired by Joe Owen, Director of Policy and Government Partnerships at Nesta.

We discussed priorities for the budget and how to balance growth, spending, and fiscal responsibility at a time when no choices are easy.

This event was for policymakers, economists and those interested in fiscal policy.

Speakers

Joe Owen headshot

Joe Owen

He/him

Joe is Director of Policy and Government Partnerships at Nesta. Joe was a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office, where he worked on a wide range of economic and domestic policy issues including climate, regional inequality and migration. He also worked at the Institute for Government, as both Director of Impact and the director of the Institute's Brexit programme. He is a senior fellow at the Institute. Joe has also worked with a number of government departments as a consultant, including the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence and he spent a year at Transport for London in its strategy team.

Tim-Leunig profile pic

Tim Leunig

He/him

Tim is Chief Economist at Nesta. Tim Leunig served as a senior UK government adviser for a decade, including as an Economic Adviser to two Chancellors, Senior Policy Adviser to six other cabinet ministers, and Chief Analyst and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Education. He invented the UK’s furlough scheme, the National Funding Formula for England’s schools, and Progress 8, the method for evaluating secondary schools. In the Autumn of 2023, he was the Prime Minister’s Education Adviser. He has taught at the London School of Economics for 25 years and is a multiple international prize-winning economist. He is also a Director of Economics at Public First.

Jill Rutter

Jill Rutter

She/her

Jill Rutter is a former British civil servant, now senior fellow at the IfG. She previously was at UK in a Changing Europe and before that programme director at the Institute for Government (IfG), where she led work on better policy making and Brexit. Before joining IfG, Rutter held positions in HM Treasury, Number 10, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Robert Colvile

Robert Colvile

He/him

Robert Colvile is Director of the CPS and Editor-in-Chief of CapX, and was one of the co-authors of the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto. He currently writes a weekly column for The Sunday Times and was previously head of comment at the Daily and Sunday Telegraph and news director at BuzzFeed UK, as well as an editor, columnist and leader writer with the Telegraph.

Abi Brown

Councillor Abi Brown OBE

She/her

Since being elected to Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 2010, Abi has been a transformative local leader, serving eight years as Deputy Leader and Leader (2015-2023). She spearheaded landmark projects like the award-winning Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone and secured over £100 million in Levelling Up funding. She secured the second-largest relocation of civil service jobs from Whitehall and influenced national policymaking from housing to culture. A strong advocate for local government, she served as Chair of the LGA Improvement and Innovation Board and is the elected Deputy Leader of the LGA Conservative Group. She was awarded an OBE in 2024 for services to local government. She is also a Non-Executive Director at Homes England.

Event information

7 Oct 2025

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