Griffith pledges a tax cut at every Budget as Tories unveil economic plan
The shadow chancellor told the Birmingham conference he would scrap Labour’s “family homes tax”, back a third runway at Heathrow and lead “the most ambitious deregulation project in a generation”.
Andrew Griffith used his conference speech as shadow chancellor to promise that a future Conservative government would scrap at least one tax at every Budget, telling delegates in Birmingham on Monday: “I didn’t come here to raise taxes, I came to lower them.”
“No country in history has ever taxed its way to prosperity, so we will cut taxes, but only when we can afford to do so, and always saying clearly how we will fund that within our golden economic rule,” he said. “Like Nigel Lawson, it’s my ambition to scrap at least one tax every Budget.”
The headline pledge was to scrap what the Conservatives call Labour’s “family homes tax”, the high-value council tax surcharge on properties valued at more than £2 million, which is due to apply from 2028. Griffith called it “a vindictive raid on family homes” and “an anti-growth tax”, telling the hall: “They pretend it’s a mansion tax, but it will hit people here in Birmingham, in Manchester, and those living in ordinary homes making long commutes to our capital city. For many, it will be simply unaffordable.”
No country in history has ever taxed its way to prosperity, so we will cut taxes, but only when we can afford to do so.Andrew Griffith, Conservative Party conference, 5 October 2026
He also promised to remove the tax on plastic packaging, a levy he admitted “most people have never heard of” but which he said damaged businesses, and said tax simplification would be “a mission for every treasury minister”, calling the UK’s tax code “a cat’s cradle of complexity”.
On infrastructure, Griffith backed a third runway at Heathrow, saying a future Conservative government would be “all in” for growth and would “legislate to sweep away the blockers to getting the infrastructure our country needs built”. He promised cheaper flights, better connections and more exports for high-value British goods.
The wider package, trailed before the speech, includes scrapping the Future Homes Standard for new builds, replacing section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy with a single developer charge to speed up approvals, and abolishing Natural England and the Environment Agency, with their key functions brought back into Whitehall.
The Tories also plan to scrap the extended producer responsibility scheme, which makes producers pay for the costs of managing packaging waste, saying the move would lift a £1.5 billion burden from businesses.
“This will be the most ambitious deregulation project in a generation,” Griffith said. “We will set out our plans line by line, every bill, every regulation, every chapter.” Labour’s chair, Bridget Phillipson, said the Conservatives wanted to take the country “back to a politics that let so many people down over the past 40 years”. The Liberal Democrats’ Daisy Cooper said “no-one can take anything the Conservatives say on the economy seriously given their litany of fantasy-land financial pledges”, while Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick accused the Tories of copying his party’s policies.
None to date. The Journal corrects errors promptly and transparently. Read our corrections policy.
