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The story could have been different. Reeves had been actively considering a multibillion-pound bank windfall tax to help repair the public finances and fund the removal of the two-child benefit limit.
In August a paper by the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank estimated Reeves could rake in as much as £8bn, in a report triggering a sell-off in UK banking shares and prompting the industry to lobby harder.
Reeves’s office was furious with the IPPR report suggesting a windfall tax, and subsequent share price reaction. However, insiders said the Treasury had requested to see the report in advance of its publication.
The Guardian also understands bank profits – inflated by the Bank of England’s quantitative easing scheme – were examined by Treasury officials on the instruction of ministers in the buildup to the budget.
“We get whiplash in meetings with HMT at times,” said one senior banker.
“One minute they’re [senior officials] incredibly nervous about inward investment, the next they’re suggesting that major structural problems are businesses’ fault. Narratives like lenders are the real handbrake on growth creep in. I think they’ve come to realise that the City can’t be taken for granted. London’s one of many financial centres for global banks.”
London’s high-paid corporate lawyers were also among those who expressed relief after the budget, after escaping a threatened tax on their earnings. Reports suggested Reeves was looking at scrapping an exemption for limited liability partnership members from national insurance – a move that would have raised £2bn.
Mark Evans, the president of the Law Society, a body representing lawyers, this week welcomed the reprieve, saying it would have been damaging to the UK economy and claiming that law firms would not have been able to invest, hire, and contribute to growth.
Banking industry figures said the sector pays a 28% headline rate of corporation tax, above the standard 25% rate charged on company profits, in addition to a 0.1% levy on bank’s balance sheets. “It’s hard to say we don’t pay a fair share, as we pay more,” said one bank lobbyist.
However, banks have still managed to rake in record profits, benefiting from rising interest rates and the winding down of the Bank’s quantitative easing scheme. In total, Positive Money estimates banks made £24.1bn in the first half of 2025 alone, amounting to almost £1bn a week.
Speaking earlier this autumn, Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, said getting banks to pay a little more to help rebuild Britain was common sense. “Banks have done very well out of the British people. It’s only right that they use their bumper profits to pay a bit more in tax to invest in our hospitals, schools and local councils.”
The Treasury was approached for comment. JP Morgan declined to comment.
