The UK’s public borrowing – the difference between total public sector spending and income – was £20.2 billion in April 2025, new data from the Office for National Statistics shows.
This figure was £1.0 billion more than in April 2024 and the fourth-highest April borrowing since monthly records began in 1993, the stats body said.
Notably, the current budget deficit – borrowing to fund day-to-day public sector activities – in the for the financial year ending March 2025 was provisionally estimated at £70.3 billion. This is £9.6 billion more than the £60.7 billion forecast by the by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Public sector net borrowing includes two broad components: the current budget and net investment. The current budget, which is usually in deficit, can be considered as borrowing to fund day-to-day public sector activities. This is the difference between its current receipts and current expenditure, while taking account of capital consumption (depreciation).
Initial estimates show that in April 2025, the current budget was in deficit by £13.9 billion. This was £0.4 billion less than in April 2024. Public sector net borrowing is the sum of the current budget deficit and the public sector’s net (capital) investment. Net investment was estimated at £6.2 billion in April 2025, which was £1.4 billion more than in April 2024.
Wealth tax mooted
The increased public borrowing will add pressure on the Labour party which will have to consider a number of additional measure to make up for the shortfall amid increased public scrutiny.
A public memo, obtained by The Telegraph this week, shows that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has proposed eight tax increases, including reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and changing dividend taxes.
She also suggested tax changes for people who pay the additional rate of income tax and a higher corporation tax level for the banks. These proposals would raise taxes by £3 billion to £4 billion a year, according to estimates cited in the document.
A report published this week shows that a 2% wealth tax on UK’s richest could have raised £160 billion in 32 years.
The report’s author Dr Ben Tippet (Lecturer in Economics and Wealth Inequality at King’s College London), tracked every family on the Sunday Times Rich List from 1994 to 2025 to calculate how the wealth of the UK’s very richest people could have contributed more to the economy.
“The Rich List is an opportunity for people to question the extreme levels of wealth and inequality in our country. Our data presents a very clear picture that vast fortunes are being accumulated at the expense of everyone else – and by not properly taxing this wealth, the country is missing out on billions of pounds of investment,” he said.
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