What businesses really thought of the Budget 2025

It's said receiving bad news together reduces stress. Perhaps that’s why it was standing room only in Gloucester Rugby’s 1873 Club where businesspeople gathered to hear Rachel Reeves’ Budget.

Dear reader,

More Budget fodder below. Not the usual ‘Budget at a Glance’. You’ve probably read that by now. This is an attempt to judge the mood it’s now left many in.

Because what matters more than anything is how the news is received by the business community itself; how the news is received by the leaders that make the decisions around hiring, firing, investing, wages and more.

Accountants Randall & Payne and event partners, wealth management experts Rathbones’ live Budget networking and expert panel event at Kingsholm Stadium certainly drew the crowds.

At times of heightened tension or crisis community becomes important. This looked every inch about just that.

There was eager anticipation (or was it just trepidation?) but also banter. This was a party, without the carefree party atmosphere. But neither was it sombre. Perhaps expectations were so low that what came for the blows they landed more softly than they might.

Or perhaps that just reflects the attitude to life of those there -…