Roger Daltrey calls UK government’s Budget a “kick in the balls” to charity sector and Teenage Cancer Trust

The Who‘s Roger Daltrey has criticised the recently announced UK government Budget, calling it a “kick in the balls” to the charity sector.

Last Wednesday (October 30) Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed the UK autumn budget in a speech.

One component of the Budget is to raise £40 billion through taxes is an increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, rising from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent starting in April 2025. The threshold at which employers start paying the tax on each employee’s salary will also decrease from £9,100 per year to £5,000.

For over 20 years, Daltrey served as a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust and curated annual concerts at the Royal Albert Hall for the charity until 2024. Although he has stepped back from some of his responsibilities, he remains passionate about supporting cancer charities.

In an interview, Daltrey told the Daily Telegraph, that some of the changes announced may have “catastrophic effects” on cancer charities. He also warned that tax hikes may force cancer charities to get rid of specialist nursing staff.

He said, in part: “If we can’t raise more money we will have to lay people off. We have specialist nurses that are trained specifically to care for that 13-24 age group, and I don’t like to think about the consequences of this. To lose nurses would be catastrophic.”

He later said: “Have these politicians got no idea how much charitable work is carried out within the NHS? Charities take an awful lot of burden off the NHS, not just Teenage Cancer Trust but Marie Curie Hospices, Macmillan nurses – then the Government goes and kicks you in the balls.”

Last week, following the announcement of the Budget by the Chancellor, live music representatives from across the board expressed their frustration around the business rate relief for grassroots music venues being cut.

Reeves revealed that business rate relief for grassroots music venues will go down from 75 per cent to 40 per cent beginning April 1 2025.

The MVT highlighted that the new taxes placed on the grassroots venuses will lead to the potential loss of over 12,000 jobs, more than £250 million in economic activity and the loss of over 75,000 live music events.

Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust (MVT) states in a press release that the immediate impact of the new relief reduction will see £7million in new premises taxes placed over 350 grassroots music venues – putting them at immediate risk of closure.

“Changes in April 2026 are to be welcomed, but will be of no use for the hundreds of music venues that are now likely to be lost before this challenge is finally met with a full, long overdue reform,” the MVT statement reads. View their full statement here.

The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) also weighed in on the Budget announcement. The organisation criticised the government and highlighted that even though Reeves extended business rates relief for night-time economy businesses in the Autumn Budget by an additional two years at a reduced 40 per cent, the benefit is negated due to the tax hikes which threaten the sector’s financial stability.

In other The Who news, Pete Townshend said the band will “definitely” return in 2025. Townshend spoke to The Standard recently, where he revealed that The Who will “do something next year”. Though he never explicitly shared what that is, his answers to the newspaper imply that they may be hitting the road.

He revealed that he had “met with Roger [Daltrey] for lunch,” and that they’re in “good form”. “We love each other. We’re both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something next year.”