NatWest boss blasts lack of 'ambition' in Budget and questions Burnham's growth strategy

Updated: 06:14 EDT, 30 October 2026 The boss of one of Britain’s biggest banks has accused John Healey of lacking ‘ambition’ in his maiden Budget this week.‘If you want a growth strategy it has to look beyond balancing the books,’ NatWest chief executive Paul Thwaite said in an apparent swipe at the Chancellor.‘We want to turn some of the resilience we are seeing in the UK economy into momentum and that’s going to require greater ambition and long-term stability, whether it’s tax, spending, planning, regulation. 'They are some of the topics that need to feed into a growth strategy.’Pointing to next year’s Spending Review and Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s ten-year plan for national renewal, Thwaite added: ‘The UK’s growth isn’t going to be determined by one Budget or a single event.‘I think they will be as much if not more significant indicators for the long-term direction of the UK.’ NatWest boss Paul Thwaite calls for 'greater ambition' to turbocharge UK economyThe comments came a day after a top executive at Lloyds branded Labour’s Budget tax raid on banks ‘unhelpful’.Lloyds finance chief William Chalmers said ‘additional taxes are unhelpful’ in achieving two major objectives for the British economy – ‘growth’ and ‘international competitiveness’.Thwaite appeared to shrug off the doubling in the bank surcharge to 6 per cent in the Budget.Bank shares rose on news of the lower-than-expected windfall tax announced by Healey – who was thought to be planning to raise it to 8 per cent.Asked if that reaction suggested banks had got off lightly, Thwaite said: ‘It doesn’t change our approach in terms of how we run the bank. We’re going to run it in the interests of all of our stakeholders. We need to be competitive for our customer and we need to deliver good returns for our shareholders.’The temporary increase in the windfall tax, which is limited to 15 months and is due to raise the Treasury £1.5billion, provided ‘welcome clarity’, he added.Thwaite was speaking after NatWest unveiled slightly better than expected third-quarter results.The banking group reported an operating pre-tax profit of £2.2billion for the three months to September, which was about 2 per cent higher than the same period last year.It made around £3.6billion in net interest income – the difference between what banks make from loans and what they pay out on deposits – which was a jump of nearly 9 per cent compared with the year before.NatWest joins other high street lenders including Lloyds and Barclays that have reported an income increase while interest rates have remained high.It also hailed the progress it had made towards becoming a simpler and technology-driven bank.This has led to the reduction of about 1,000 full-time staff in the quarter, bringing the total of jobs lost to 1,400 so far this year.However, the recent acquisition of wealth manager Evelyn Partners has brought around 2,200 staff into the group, driving up its overall headcount.NatWest said it had managed to make cost savings of around £420million, helping bring down its cost-to-income ratio – the amount it spends on running the business as a percentage of what it generates in income – to 45.7 per cent for the year-to-date.This has been helped by investment into technology including AI tools, with recent trials of a spending insights helper and a fraud agent for credit card customers.Thwaite said: ‘As we help more customers to save and invest, buy a home or expand their businesses, we continue to see broad-based growth in our three customer franchises, with lending, deposits and assets under management all increasing during the quarter.’DIY INVESTING PLATFORMSAJ BellAJ BellEasy investing and ready-made portfoliosHargreaves LansdownHargreaves LansdownFree fund dealing and investment ideasinteractive investorinteractive investorFlat-fee investing from £4.99 per monthFreetradeFreetradeInvesting Isa now free on basic planTrading 212Trading 212Free share dealing and no account feeAffiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.Compare the best investing account for you