Seven tests for Jeremy Hunt’s Budget

Yesterday the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced his Autumn Statement – one we had all been told would be brutal and difficult to bear. He did so in the context of forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility that outlined an economy in recession, the biggest drop in living standards for decades, ongoing high inflation, rising unemployment and interest rates, growing debt, and a historically high national tax burden.

How the politics of this budget will play out is relatively simple.

The Government will say that they are facing unprecedented global ‘headwinds’. Emerging from a global pandemic, the impact of the war in Ukraine on food and energy prices, and, (whether spoken about or not) the impact of Brexit on trade and labour markets are all working against economic growth (and yes, there are potential benefits to Brexit but economically they are, as yet, unrealised).

Opposition parties will claim the Government has been in power for 12 years and the UK is being disproportionately impacted because of Government policy and their decisions over a decade, compounded by what was an injudicious mini-budget by the Chancellor’s predecessor.

Of course, both are partly true.

While there is a deeply political element to every budget my intention here is to hold yesterday’s autumn statement up against some biblical principles that I believe should underpin all our economic policy.

As I do so one of the encouragements I took from the Chancellor’s speech was his desire to have ‘good’ principles that underpin all his measures. The dual aims of protecting the most vulnerable, and seeing those with the broadest economic shoulders bear the greatest burden, are worthy of our praise. His emphasis on stability, growth and public services must also be something we support, as is honesty about the challenges we face together.

And that honesty may lead us to believe that we have no good choices. I do not believe that is the case, and as Christians we can point to good principles that we can promote and use to evaluate budgets. Therefore we must seek:

1. A budget that respects human dignity: we are more than economic units of labour, and our flourishing cannot be measured in GDP per capita alone. Poverty grieves God, but we do not just solve the problem of poverty with money.
2. A budget that understands the power of sin; we see the divine image in every person, but we know that our hearts are corrupt and we are drawn to sin against our creator, one another and his Creation. How do we mitigate the impact and effects of sin at a micro and macro level and know the constraints sin places on our abilities and aspirations?
3. A budget that upholds the basic unit of society: the family. Marriage has been a God-ordained institution from Genesis 2 onwards, and families are the building block of a good society. Supporting marriage and families is good for all and is often neglected, ignored, or denied by leaders.
4. A budget that promotes love of neighbour and cares for the widow, orphan and stranger. This is what Jesus taught us and it underpins our love of God. We are challenged to be more generous than we are comfortable with.
5. A budget that promotes good work as a good gift and expectation. We are made to work, and while we care for those who cannot work, we must encourage those who can work to do so; we must also ensure that the work is good and honours human dignity.
6. A budget that promotes generosity and stewardship. God calls us to be generous, as what we have is from Him; we are stewards of his Creation and we are expected to grow and develop the gifts we have over time.
7. A budget that rewards righteousness, including the promotion of industry, creativity and investment: these encourage and empower people to use their gifts to promote growth, that can then be used for God’s glory.

Did the Chancellor’s budget tick these boxes? Each of us will make that assessment ourselves, and the generosity of our answers may depend on our own political allegiances.

However, I believe these biblical principles are a good starting point for our assessment of the budget, as we seek to reflect God’s own heart, and to challenge our own.

If over the coming days you find yourself in conversations about the budget, perhaps these principles might set the tone for your conversation. We may be shocked that those who advocate very different policies have very similar aims, or that policy agreement masks very different ideas of what makes a good society.

And you never know, rather than concentrating on how much we will have in our own pockets, God may lead us to adore him more as we draw closer to his heart for us all, and may even lead us to some unexpected places.