Autumn Budget 2025: TLT reactions

Today's long awaited budget will have wide-reaching impacts across all sectors. In this article, experts from across the firm share their reactions to the contents of the famous red box.

Future Energy

Juliet Stradling, Contracts and Procurement Partner said: "The headline energy measure is the decision to move some of the costs of the renewables obligation scheme from domestic customer bills to general taxation for three years (April 2026 to March 2029).  This –and the decision not to renew the NAO-criticised ECO scheme when it expires -will help alleviate the pressure on bills coming from other levies and network charges.  

"It will be interesting to see the mechanism that the Government will use for achieving this switch in funding arrangements. The imposition of the “buy-out price” on suppliers is integral to the design of the renewables obligation scheme, which is likely to account for the proposal that the Government will refund suppliers for their costs rather than the Government directly bearing the costs of the scheme.  Potentially, the Government might use a similar structure to that used to implement the domestic energy price reduction scheme following the invasion of Ukraine. 

"It is worth noting that the costs of the renewables obligation for non-domestic customers will be unaffected.  Therefore, this will have a limited impact on incentives around licence exempt supply structures for non-domestic customers."

Infrastructure

Richard Marsh, Infrastructure, Planning and Parliamentary Partner said: "It is welcomed that this Government understands the importance of infrastructure delivery, as has been indicated by its 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, published in June. Although the budget contained very little in terms of new infrastructure-related announcements, it did make it clear that focusing on infrastructure delivery is vital to the prosperity and success of the country. The Budget Report reminds us of the ongoing, wide-ranging planning reforms that are being introduced via the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, to make it easier and quicker to consent infrastructure and development projects.

"The Report also emphasises the steps being taken by the government to facilitate the delivery of AI Growth Zones and nuclear power stations (large scale and small modular reactors (SMR)); this included a nod to the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce which has just released a report recommending radical steps to help deliver a new fleet of conventional and SMRs without being over-burdened and delayed by unnecessary regulation. It is welcomed that the Government will now take forward those recommendations.

"A major blocker to securing planning consent is the under resourcing of council planning teams, so the infrastructure and development industry will also support that the government is investing an additional £48 million of additional funding to recruit and retain an extra 350 planners in England; that must now translate into more efficient and consistent decision making, thereby reducing costs and delay to developers and infrastructure promoters."

Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs)

Douglas Roberts, Corporate Partner said: "At the Autumn Budget today, the Chancellor unexpectedly announced a change to the 100% capital gains tax relief available on the sale of a company to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). From today, the relief will be adjusted to 50% - a move that the Treasury estimates will raise, on average, £0.9bn a year from 2027-28 onwards.

"However, while this does represent a shift from the previous position, it is unlikely to halt the increasing prevalence of the EOT structure, which continues to offer a range of advantages for sellers beyond tax relief.  Further, it will still deliver a meaningful tax saving for those selling to an EOT, despite the new change."

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