Workers pay for business tax breaks as government fails to index tax bands

Housing crisis will not be solved by patchwork of subsidies and tax giveaways

Responding to Budget 2026, trade union Unite warned today that many workers will be running to stand still following the government’s decision to focus on tax breaks for builders and burger chains rather than inflation-proofing income tax bands at a time when workers are facing an ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

The union also strongly criticised the government’s continued reliance on market subsidies rather than expanding public provision of vital services such as childcare and housing.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:

“Budgets are about choices, and the government chose to listen to poormouth employers rather than boost workers’ living standards.

“Much of the tax envelope has been gobbled up by profit-boosting VAT cuts on hospitality and apartment construction, leaving nothing for indexing tax bands to preserve workers’ incomes.

“Following the decision earlier this year to postpone the Living Wage and defer improvements to sick pay, it is clear employers have taken up residence in Government Buildings.

“Workers now have no choice but to organise in defence of their living standards.”

At a time when many young construction workers are emigrating because they cannot afford to live in the homes they build, VAT giveaways and corporation tax sweeteners for builders and landlords will do nothing to reduce the cost of housing, while measures such as renters’ tax credit and the ‘help to buy’ scheme merely subsidise high prices rather than addressing the root causes of the housing crisis.

The union’s Irish secretary Susan Fitzgerald said:

“The housing crisis will not be solved by adding to the patchwork of market subsidies and tax giveaways. If the right homes are to be built in the right places at the right price, home building must be state-led rather than developer-led. Some of the windfall Apple tax money should have been earmarked for the development of a public construction company mandated to build truly affordable homes on public land. Instead, the government is going back to the pre-crash playbook and frittering away Exchequer funds on tax breaks which may will simply swell developers’ profits.”