Autumn Budget 2025 Lesson Resources
- The Econosaurus
- Nov 26
- 3 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Apologies if you couldn't find this earlier, I posted it to the wrong category so it didn't show up on the homepage. Woops!
I feel like there was a lot more awareness surrounding this budget compared to others, so hopefully students will be quite engaged with it. I've collected/created a bunch of resources you can use in your A-Level Economics lessons on the Budget. Much of it would also be suitable for GCSE Economics, A-Level Business or A-Level Politics.
Here are a few student-friendly articles, videos and podcasts:
Executive Summary - pretty accessible this year. The first page actually isn't that useful, so I've put a pdf with just the most important bits at the bottom of this page
BBC Key Points at a Glance - a concise overview
BBC Your Voice - takes profiles of individuals and briefly discusses the effect on each of them
BBC What does it mean for you? - looks at practical impacts
IFS 90-second explainer video - does what it says on the tin
Economics Factory livestream video and powerpoint
Here is a summary powerpoint going over context and key measures. It's nothing exciting but does the job. Additional info is in the notes, in case you aren't feeling too confident!
In terms of activities, I've got a whole bunch of stuff below. There is easily a few hours worth of lesson or homework time here - feel free to pick and choose based on what you need! A lot of it would be fine to set for cover.
First is a 2 page explainer on how taxes change (ie not just rate rises, but eligibility changes, relief changes, band changes etc). I think it should be useful with this budget because the tax changes are quite nuanced, but it would also just be good reading/evaluation fodder for fiscal policy more generally. I think this would work best as a primer before students look at the budget.
There is also a paper-based exercise where students have to find an example of each type of change in the Budget. Students can do this with or without having read the explainer first. It should be fairly accessible even to students who haven't covered much macro. It's great evaluation training, especially for the AQA investigation.
This is shorter than the tax explainer, but is again useful for some critical thinking around the budget, looking at things like total vs per capita spending and funded vs unfunded spending promises.
There are some really nice charts in the policy paper this year, so they make a good opportunity to practice some quantitative skills. I reckon students need some knowledge of macro measures and objectives to get the most out of these. If you don't use them now, they will still be relevant and useful later in the year.
This worksheet asks students to look at the analysis of a number of claims from both parties regarding the Budget. They have to note down evidence on both sides. This is good practice for critiquing data and is accessible to everyone, whether or not they have studied much economics.
This activity has become a bit of a staple. Students must consider the broad impacts of the Budget on different groups in society, such as pensioners or small businesses.
Here students need to consider the impact of the Budget generally on different macro objectives. Students need some knowledge of macroeconomics to benefit the most. There are different levels of challenge here based on which source they use.
Another staple. For each row, students pick a policy, identify it's intended outcome, how it theoretically achieves that and possible disadvantages. It's good analysis practice and gets them using their brains!
This activity is good for both comprehension and application practice. Students need to find quotations to support given claims.
Here students must label pie charts on government spending and tax receipts. Answers are here and also in the slides (scroll up!). This works well as a starter. No prior knowledge needed.
Other:
