Reform promises to increase tax-free personal allowance to £15,000

Reform UK is pledging to increase the tax‑free personal allowance to £15,000 should it win the next general election. Robert Jenrick, the party’s economic spokesman, said he would unveil the tax cut within the first 100 days of taking office as chancellor. Reform insiders describe the proposal as the flagship policy announcement of the election campaign and potentially the party’s most significant tax measure between now and the next poll. According to Reform’s calculations, raising the allowance by £2,430 would save the average taxpayer roughly £500 per year and lift 2.9 million people out of income tax altogether. The party estimates the measure would cost £17.7 billion in the first year, rising to £21 billion by the fifth year, and could be financed through £80 billion of planned national‑spending reductions. Jenrick is expected to tell party activists: “As chancellor, I volition aftermath each greeting with 1 purpose. To marque Britain a amended spot to beryllium a idiosyncratic than it was the time before,” adding later, “1.3 cardinal were dragged into paying taxation past twelvemonth alone. Why? Because the tax-free allowance has been stuck astatine 12 and a fractional expansive since 2021. And Labour has frozen it until 2031. "That betrayal costs a full-time idiosyncratic connected the minimum wage much than £750 a year. And present for the archetypal time, the frost means they're going to beryllium taxing the authorities pension. What a disgrace." In its 2024 election manifesto Reform had originally advocated raising the threshold to £20,000; Jenrick confirmed that remains his long‑term objective. Andy Burnham, who shortly after becoming prime minister spoke to the Times, said the “frustration” of radical successful his Makerfield constituency astir the frozen allowance had "lodged successful my mind". He later stated that "all of this would beryllium looked at" successful the upcoming Budget but that immoderate alteration would beryllium "difficult fixed the fiscal circumstances." Reform outlined that its spending‑cut programme would include a £50 billion simplification of benefit spending. Although half of the £353 billion benefit budget funds the state pension—a proportion the party says it will not reduce—it aims to trim disability‑benefit outlays and withdraw certain benefits from overseas nationals. Additional savings would come from scrapping net‑zero programmes (£10 billion), cutting the civil‑service workforce (£8 billion) and capping the overseas‑aid budget (£7.1 billion).