Onward's response to Healey's budget: Responding to John Healey’s Budget 2026, Simon Clarke, director of Onward said: “This Budget was a missed opportunity that means the choices the country faces will be even harder in the future. Britain is drowning in three trillion pounds of debt, while the Chancellor shuffled costs from one pocket to the next. “Businesses and households should not enter into an unlucky draw every time the Budget comes around. Scrapping standing charges on gas bills only to load the cost onto gas usage is not relief. Raising the minimum and living wage in a way that prices young people out of work is not relief. Cutting business rates for the high street while hiking them for small firms trading online is not relief. “The Chancellor needs to tackle the causes of our problems instead of trying to manage the symptoms. Britain is over-borrowed and over-taxed, but instead Labour keeps doubling down on trying to spend their way out of trouble.”