Paper short abstract:

The Labour government's new budget marks a 'critical junction' in UK public finances. This paper unpacks the reorientation of fiscal flows from austerity to borrowing and investment, sketching possible directions of anthropological analysis of this critical junction.

Paper long abstract:

Taking a cue from this year’s conference theme, this paper considers the release of the first Labour budget in fourteen years as marking a ‘critical junction’ in UK public finances. In October 2024, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves presented the Labour government’s budget as a stark departure from nearly a decade and a half of Tory-administered fiscal austerity. Promising an economic growth-based approach to rebuilding Britain’s public services and raising living standards, she remarked that the only way to achieve this ‘is to invest, invest, invest.’ While a rise in employer contributions to national insurance represents the main source of increased tax revenue, crucial to the shift from austerity to investment is the relaxation of fiscal rules that opens new paths to government borrowing for long-term infrastructure projects (but not day-to-day spending). Specifically, Reeves confirmed at the IMF annual meeting in Washington, D.C. a new method for assessing the UK’s debt position which takes into account government assets in addition to liabilities. As fiscal flows are thus reoriented not only by tax rises but around borrowing and investment, this paper begins to sketch some possible directions for anthropological analysis of this critical junction in UK public finances.