Autumn Budget 2026

Chancellor John Healy presented his first Budget to the House of Commons on 28 October, alongside the publication of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s updated forecasts for growth and borrowing.

Below, are the key points he delivered in his speech. To view the full report, please click the following link.

About this report

This report was written immediately after John Healy delivered his speech and has been prepared from press releases and other documents. It is not intended to cover every aspect of the Budget but, instead, is designed to act as overview only. No liability is accepted for any action taken or refrained from in consequence of its contents. Advice should always be sought from a professional.

Highlights

• Establish a parental allowance for fathers, partners and adopters.
• Household Energy Payment: £100 council tax rebate for households in bands A to D
• Gas standing charges to be abolished
• Gas Shipper Obligation to fund hydrogen projects to be put on to general taxation
• New £4.7 billion equity loan scheme, supporting 70,000 first-time buyers with up to 20% government equity loans.
• Additional funding of £1.5 billion for the Social and Affordable Homes Programme.
• £442m of funding to deliver a route off the street to rough sleepers in England before Christmas.
• £5 million a year for three years from 2027-28 to increase the provision of books for pre-school children.
• National living wage to increase by 3.9%
• £10 billion in future UK support for Ukraine from 2026-27 onwards.
• Business rates: relief for pubs, social clubs and live music venues is increasing the relief in England by 20ppt, from 15% to 35% from 1 April 2027.
• SBRR eligibility thresholds increased from £12,000 to a rateable value of £18,000
• Road tax to increase in line with the Retail Prices Index.
• The temporary 0% VAT rate for domestic electricity will be extended for a further three months.
• Fuel duty frozen until July 2027.
• The tax-free, per mile rate will be 55p for the first 10,000 miles and 35p per mile for mileage above 10,000 miles
• New FTB ISA from April 2029. The product will replace the Lifetime ISA (LISA) for new savers and provide a 25% government bonus, paid on withdrawal, towards the purchase of a first home worth up to £450,000.
• Property income tax to rise 2%.
• Sel-employed Increase in Trading Allowance from £1,000 to £3,000
• 2% tax increase on savings income.
• New state pension to rise by £488 a year from April. Oold basic state pension to rise by £374.40
• Cash ISA limit of £20,000 to be retained.

• GDP Growth for: 2026 / 1.2%; 2027 / 1.0%; 2028 / 1.6%; 2029 / 1.8%; 2030 / 1.7%; 2031 / 1.6%
• Inflation is currently 3.4%; 2026 / 3.1%; 2027 / 3.4%; 2028 / 2.1%; 2029 / 2.1%; 2030 / 2%; 2031 / 2%
• Public Sector net debt - 2026 /  95.5%; 2027 /  96.7%; 2028 /  97.3%; 2029 /  96.7%; 2030 / 95.9%; 2031 /  95.6%
• Public Sector Net Borrowing - 2026 / 4.2%; 2027 / 3.4%; 2028 / 2.9% ; 2029 /  2.1%; 2030 / 1.8%; 2031 / 1.8%
• Borrowing in Billions- 2026/27 £133.2; 2027/28 £112; 2028/29 £99.5; 2029/30 £73.8; 2030/31 £66.9; 2031/32 £68.3

• Administration budgets – Government administration budgets will be reduced by 20% in real terms by 2029-30 compared to 2025-26 saving an additional £595 million in year 2029-30 compared to SR25 plans. £50 million of those savings will be reinvested in a new Civil Service AI transformation fund for AI deployment across the Civil Service to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens and improve outcomes.
• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) winter pressures – The Budget provides £190 million for the NHS in England. This funding will support the NHS to manage the additional pressures it is facing over the winter and the rest of this year.
• Specifying the savings to fund the 2026 police pay award – £150 million of savings from the Afghan Resettlement Programme is being repurposed to support the costs of the 2026 police pay award in England and Wales.
• Welfare: removal of benefit entitlements from serious offenders in hospital – From 6 April 2027, individuals convicted of a number of serious offences who are detained in hospital will no longer be entitled to benefit payments in Great Britain.
• Universal Credit: surplus earnings threshold – The government will maintain the surplus earnings threshold at £2,500 for Universal Credit claimants in Great Britain for a further year until the end of March 2028.
• Parental pay: establish a parental allowance for fathers, partners and adopters – The government is extending parental pay to eligible self-employed fathers, partners and adopters in Great Britain from April 2029. Those who are recently employed or unemployed, or with a broken or irregular pattern of employment, and therefore do not qualify for statutory paternity or adoption pay will also benefit providing that they have sufficient work and earnings history.
• Carer’s Allowance: introduce a taper on excess earnings – The government is replacing the withdrawal of Carer’s Allowance at the Weekly Earnings Limit with a 100% taper on earnings in excess of the limit. The taper is planned to be introduced in 2030-31 and apply in England and Wales.
• Asylum accommodation – The government is providing £150 million capital investment in 2027-28 to fund additional large sites to accommodate asylum seekers.
• DWP fraud and error: invest in 2,000 specialist fraud staff – The government will recruit over 2,000 specialist fraud staff in DWP to prevent fraud in new and existing Universal Credit claims.

• Household Energy Payment: £100 council tax rebate for households in bands A to D – The government will provide a £100 Household Energy Payment for households in bands A to D in England, alongside £100 million of further funding for local authorities to provide targeted support to households acutely impacted by rising energy bills. This will be delivered by local authorities from January 2027.
• Abolish gas standing charges – The government has asked Ofgem to abolish gas standing charges on domestic energy bills in Great Britain, aiming for delivery by the end of 2027 or as soon as possible after then. The government is also committing to reform electricity standing charges and will set out details next year.
• Gas Shipper Obligation – A new levy on gas bills in Great Britain will no longer be implemented. Instead Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 funding will be met with a £27 million uplift to DESNZ RDEL in 2027-28 and the government will publicly fund any future hydrogen contracts – for example Hydrogen Production Plant 1 – if the government commits to them and subject to value for money.
  

• British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) funding – Applications are now open for the scheme, which from 1 April 2027 will exempt eligible businesses in Great Britain from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed in Tariffs and Capacity Market schemes.
• British Business Bank recapitalisation – The British Business Bank’s total financial capacity will be increased by £5 billion, enabling increased commercial equity investment activity, a new venture debt product for innovative firms including defence and dual-use technology companies, and additional support for community lenders across the UK.
• National Wealth Fund (NWF) recapitalisation – The government will provide the National Wealth Fund with an additional £15.4 billion of capital to continue investing in UK businesses and projects, which includes a £2 billion down payment for the Energy Wealth Fund.
• UKRI big bets – UKRI will concentrate £1 billion of investment on “big bets,” channelling funding towards priority clusters across the country, in alignment with the Industrial Strategy sectors.
• Rolls Royce next-generation gas-turbine technology cooperation agreement – The government is announcing a plan for a multi-decade cooperation agreement with Rolls-Royce starting with co-investment in a joint, 10-year, £2.5 billion programme for next-generation gas turbine technologies for civil and defence aerospace. The cooperation agreement provides the framework under which any future support will be provided. This has not been contracted and funding is subject to award, negotiations and relevant legal processes.
• Widening SME access to export finance – Small and medium-sized businesses will have greater access to UK Export Finance working capital guarantees with expanded eligibility, faster approvals for larger facilities and a new SME export finance scheme launching in 2027 supporting smaller loans.
• Reform of non-compete clauses – The government will introduce legislation so that non-compete clauses in employment contracts do not prevent startups and scaling firms from hiring, or workers in the everyday economy from moving jobs. These reforms will apply across the whole economy. The government will consult shortly to understand the wider use of restrictive practices, to ensure that action it takes is proportionate, evidence-based and supportive of both dynamism and intellectual property. The government will set out a detailed position on all of these issues in early 2027, ahead of bringing legislation.
• Extending visa curtailment to six months – The government will allow the highest skilled workers to access a visa curtailment period of up to six months. This will give highly skilled workers longer to find a new job, with the duration varying depending on how long they have worked in their previous, highly-paid job, with implementation in 2027.
• Extending the graduate visa from 18 months to two years for eligible universities – The graduate visa duration will be set at two years for individuals who graduate from high-compliance universities where there are strong labour market outcomes.
• Strategic Sites Accelerator – The government is announcing the formal launch of the Strategic Sites Accelerator (SSA). The SSA will mobilise around £700 million through the Office for Investment and National Wealth Fund to unlock the development of strategic commercial sites across the UK. The scheme is now open for applications from qualifying sites and is on track to invest in its first sites by the end of March 2027.

• Publishing the Fiscal Devolution Roadmap – The government is publishing the Fiscal Devolution Roadmap, which sets out its plans to reform the way that regional government is funded. This includes bringing Mayors into the Business Rates Retention system from 2027-28 and providing them with a share of income tax from 2028-29, as well as enabling strategic authorities to introduce visitor levies with local leaders able to set out plans for how revenues will be invested by March 2028.
• Increasing Business Rates Retention as part of fiscal devolution – From April 2027, mayors will receive a share of business rates income in exchange for Investment Funds, Mayoral Capacity Funding and Local Growth Funds, alongside a 20% share of growth in their areas on a permanent basis.
• Business Rates Retention Zones programme for Mayoral Strategic Authorities – Subject to Full Business Case approval, the government is supporting nine Strategic Authorities by establishing new Business Rates Retention Zones. Within these zones, the relevant billing authorities can retain 100% of business rates growth above an agreed baseline for 25 years, allowing them to invest in local priorities.
• Good Growth Funds – The government is supporting Mayors and local leaders in England to establish Good Growth Funds, giving local leaders greater flexibility to invest in local growth priorities with £285 million in transitional seed funding for one year in 2027-28, accompanied by a devolved borrowing facility for MSAs of £1.5 billion from April 2028 to catalyse investment into regional growth priorities. This facility will include a mechanism for subsidised lending.
• Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) lending limit extension – The government is raising the statutory limit on the total amount of loans that can be issued to local authorities from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) from £135 billion to £155 billion, with the option to increase it to up to £175 billion in the future via statutory instrument.
• Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) debt relief for councils in severe financial distress – The government is providing debt relief totalling £500 million for Woking Borough Council and £200 million for Thurrock Council for debt owed to the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB), to support the councils in their recovery from severe financial distress.
• Northern Olympics – The government is funding £7 million to conduct a feasibility study for a potential future bid to host the Olympics and Paralympics in the North of England during the 2040s
• Supporting regional growth priorities – Subject to business cases, the government is providing: i) £3 million for an inactivity pilot to support NEETs into Plymouth’s defence industry, ii) £11 million for the replacement of the Aberavon bridge in Port Talbot, iii) £3 million to provide match funding for specialist innovation space for early-stage companies in the Don Valley Corridor, iv) £10 million to unlock private investment in Bristol Temple Quarter, and v) £15 million to expand the Leeds College of Building campus.
• Local Renewal Fund – The government will continue to support local projects across the UK through a new £80 million Local Renewal Fund to invest in local economic regeneration, support job creation, maintain heritage assets and back local initiatives that boost economic growth.
• TransPennine route upgrade – The government has awarded a £1.2 billion contract to Alstom’s Derby Litchurch Lane Works to build 29 new battery-powered trains.

• Procurement reform– A new National Procurement Policy Statement will be laid in Parliament in March 2027, prioritising delivery of high-quality jobs, fair pay and skills opportunities. The government will publish a new definition for a “UK supplier” in public procurement by January 2027, to get a better understanding of UK suppliers and sub-contractors across public supply chains.
• Misogyny prevention funding – The government will provide £15 million to the Office for the Impact Economy to work with businesses, investors and philanthropists to mobilise additional funding to support women and girls, and underpin the work of the National Taskforce for Tackling Misogyny, chaired by the Minister for Women and Equalities.

• Sovereign AI Fund – The £500 million Sovereign AI Fund (SovAI) will expand its direct investment activity by an additional £60 million between 2027-28 and 2029-30. This will include SovAI investing in a new focus area of Physical and Industrial AI.
• AI Pathfinder fund – £60 million of funding will be provided between 2026-27 and 2029-30 on a needs-led basis to test solutions to cross-government barriers and opportunities arising from the AI transition.
• Local AI partnerships – The government will provide £15 million funding for Local AI partnerships to pioneer place-based approaches to AI adoption from 2026-27 to 2029-30.
• Chancellor’s AI Challenge Prize – A new Chancellor’s AI Challenge Prize will launch as an annual competition focused on a different public service priority each year with funding provided from 2026-27 to 2029-30. The first competition will focus on the NHS, with a top award of up to £2.5 million for the most promising solution to a priority healthcare challenge.
• Strengthening the AI Security Institute – The AI Security Institute will receive an additional £120 million of funding over 2026-27 to 2029-30 to strengthen the UK’s frontier AI evaluation and testing capability.
• Quantum Sensing procurement commitment – The government is making a new £138 million commitment from existing Budgets to catalyse quantum sensing procurement, led by BIST and including £30 million of co-investment from MoD for military-relevant innovation.
• Expansion of Sovereign AI (SovAI) procurement scheme – The government is funding an additional £80 million to support SovAI’s challenge-led R&D procurement scheme. The scheme will back innovative AI companies to develop solutions to challenges including across the health and care system and in AI security, assurance and safe adoption, as well as delivering innovative approaches to warfighting, in addition to those already announced.
• National Agentic Security Unit – A new £40 million National Agentic Security Unit will build world-first capabilities to detect and respond to misaligned agentic activity, increasing resilience to agentic incidents.
• National Cyber Shield – A new £60 million National Cyber Shield will develop agentic capabilities to automate the UK’s cyber defences, including a £25 million AI and Cyber Security Challenge Fund to foster UK innovation.
• National Biosecurity Initiative – The government is investing £100 million between 2027-28 and 2029-30 to establish a new AI Biosecurity Lab which will use advanced AI tools to understand and counter AI-enabled biosecurity threats, and a further £65 million to enhance metagenomic surveillance and partner with industry to develop medical countermeasures.
• AI NERV centre – A new £70 million National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre will deploy AI tools to identify cyber vulnerabilities across our critical infrastructure and the wider economy.
• Progressing Data Centre Build – The government will launch a new data centre covenant for new strategic data centres and the contribution these projects must make to the UK, matched by a stronger offer of government support on energy connectivity for the projects that contribute the most to the UK’s objectives.
  

• Your First Home Scheme – The government is introducing a new £4.7 billion equity loan scheme, supporting 70,000 first-time buyers with up to 20% government equity loans. Participants will benefit from a reduced deposit requirement and a five year interest free period, which will save the typical buyer hundreds of pounds a month.
• Social and Affordable Homes Programme uplift – The government is providing further funding of £1.5 billion for the Social and Affordable Homes Programme.
• Rough sleeping – Over July and August, the Prime Minister announced £442m of funding to deliver a route off the street to rough sleepers in England before Christmas, alongside longer-term accommodation and intensive support. The government is now announcing additional funding to ensure that people sleeping rough in England have a route off the streets, not just this year, but every year, taking total additional rough sleeping funding to £874m from 2026-27 to 2028-29.
  

• Books for children – The government will provide £5 million a year for three years from 2027-28 to increase the provision of books for pre-school children, supporting organisations such as the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and BookTrust.
• School Physical Education (PE) & Sport funding – Funding to the Department for Education will increase by £60 million per year to contribute to the cost of new PE & Sport partnerships, due to be rolled out in England in 2027.
  

• Youth employment and skills: expanding local apprenticeship services to all current mayors – The government is providing £100 million of funding across 2027-28 and 2028-29 to expand Mayoral Apprenticeship Brokerage Pilots from 7 to 14 Mayoral Strategic Authorities across England. This will enable all current mayors to provide tailored support to young people and employers, particularly SMEs, to create more apprenticeship opportunities.
• Young Entrepreneurs Allowance – The government will pilot a Young Entrepreneurs Allowance in England, providing successful applicants with support towards their living costs during the first year of their business.
• Apprenticeships and skills: re-establish the Union Learning Fund – The government will re-establish the Union Learning Fund in England. The scheme will have a budget of £15 million per year from 2027-28 to allocate to projects put forward by unions to support learning and training among workers, supporting upskilling to the changing needs of the economy.
• National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage – On 1 April 2027, the National Living Wage will increase by 3.9% to £13.21 per hour; the National Minimum Wage will increase by 3.9% to £11.27 per hour for 18 to 20-year-olds and by 3.9% to £8.31 per hour for 16 to 17-year-olds and eligible apprentices; and the accommodation offset will rise by 3.9% to £11.53 per day.
• Requiring apprenticeships in large government construction and infrastructure projects – The government will require at least 3% of the workforces of all construction and infrastructure large government projects to be apprentices.
  

• NATO defence spending commitments – At the spending review next year, the government will set out the details of how we will meet our NATO commitment of spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035, with a target date for 3% in 2030.
• Innovative Defence Financing Taskforce – The government is launching a new taskforce, charged with maximising the contribution of private and international finance to UK defence, and to further procurement reforms that support innovative financing.
• Multilateral Defence Mechanism (MDM) – MDM partners, including the UK, will be commencing treaty negotiations, respecting individual members’ national processes, with the aim of having the MDM up and running in 2027.
• NWF and BBB defence commitment – The National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank will deploy up to £5 billion of investment and lending over the next 4 years into defence, dual use, and other sectors that support our national security, sovereign capability and resilience.
• Defence private financing – The government will develop a pipeline for private finance opportunities, including public private partnerships, where they are value for money
• Expanded Public Sector Defence Programme – An additional £24 million will be invested between 2026-27 and 2029-30 in hardening our public sector AI defences and making AI-enabled cyber defence tools available across public services.
• Emergency support for Ukraine’s air defences – The government is providing an additional £500 million of military support this winter to support Ukraine’s air defences.
• Defence reform and efficiency - Reforming procurement under the National Armaments Director, publishing a new Counter Fraud Strategy and investing over £500 million in productivity improving investments this year.
• Ukraine economic support – The government is making available a package of over £10 billion in future UK support for Ukraine from 2026-27 onwards, including up to £7 billion delivered through World Bank lending, £3 billion in increased capacity for UK Export Finance and £500 million of military support for this winter. The government will also provide £17 million for Chornobyl repairs and £3 million to support efforts to help return stolen children to Ukraine.
  

• E-invoicing – The government will require VAT invoices to be issued in a specified electronic format from 1 April 2029. The government has published an implementation roadmap, which sets out the key elements of the e-invoicing regime, and by April 2028 will provide full details on the policy and technical design of e-invoicing.
• Reforming how taxpayers claim for employment expenses – The government will remove the £2,500 Income Tax Self-Assessment expenses threshold from 6 April 2028. This will allow more taxpayers to claim tax relief on non-reimbursed employment expenses through PAYE and ensure more claims are subject to evidence before relief is issued.
• More timely payment for self-assessment –The government will require Income Tax Self-Assessment taxpayers who make payments on account to make more regular in-year payments towards their final tax bill from April 2029.
• Requiring direct debit arrangements for VAT and PAYE return liabilities – The government will require taxpayers to set up a direct debit instruction for VAT and PAYE return liabilities from April 2029. Businesses will continue to be able to use other payment methods to pay their liability before a specified cut-off date. The direct debit instruction will be used to collect any unpaid balances.
• Enhancing HMRC’s debt management capacity – The government will introduce a new power enabling HMRC to recover lower value tax debts through regular instalments directly from the bank accounts of individuals and companies who can afford to pay but repeatedly fail to do so from July 2029.
• Investing in HMRC’s debt management capacity – The government will invest a further £70 million over the next five years in HMRC’s existing partnerships with private sector debt collection agencies to collect more tax debt.
• Investing in additional HMRC compliance staff – The government will recruit an additional 670 HMRC compliance officers.
• Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax – Taxpayers joining MTD for income tax in April 2027 will not receive penalty points for late submission of their first four quarterly updates for the tax year 2027-28. The government is also deferring the roll-out of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to several taxpayer groups until further notice.
• Tax treatment of image rights payments – As announced at Budget 2025, the government will clarify that image rights payments related to an employment are taxable as employment income and taxed in the same way as wages. To provide affected sectors with additional time to adjust to this change, the measure will now take effect from 6 April 2028. This will be introduced through legislation in Finance Bill 2026-27.
• VAT online marketplace liability (OMPL) – From October 2027, VAT OMPL rules will be extended to UK businesses. Online marketplaces will be responsible for collecting VAT on sales by UK VAT-registered businesses and any other UK business with a minimum annual sales threshold per platform of £90,000. The rules will not apply to non-business (i.e. personal) sales, second-hand goods, or business-to-business transactions.
• Stamp Duty Land Tax group relief – The government will amend SDLT group relief rules to ensure that relief is withdrawn as intended when a purchaser leaves a corporate group, where the vendor company has been wound up. The changes will apply to transactions of property situated in England and Northern Ireland from 29 October 2026 and will be introduced through legislation in Finance Bill 2026-27.
• Close company reporting – Following consultation on company payments to participators, the government will not implement the proposed new reporting requirements at this time.

• Stamp Duty taxes on shares – modernisation – Following consultations in 2023 and 2025, and the publication of draft legislation in July, the government will introduce legislation in Finance Bill 2026-27 to introduce the Securities Transfer Tax from late 2027. The Securities Transfer Tax will replace Stamp Duty and Stamp Duty Reserve Tax.
• Review of Benchmark Scale Rates and Overseas Scale Rates – The government will reform and simplify the outdated rates used by employers to reimburse employees for domestic and overseas business travel and subsistence expenses without requiring receipts to be checked. From April 2028 Benchmark Scale Rates (BSR) will be modernised to better reflect current subsistence costs for domestic business travel. Overseas Scale Rates (OSR) will be simplified, replacing the current destination-specific framework with a tiered approach that reduces administrative burdens for employers.
• Income Tax: Pension Tax Allowance – The government will introduce the Pension Tax Allowance (PTA), ensuring that pensioners whose total income is up to the value of the full new State Pension do not have the administrative burden of paying small amounts of tax. The value of the PTA is calculated by applying the basic rate of income tax (20%) to the difference between the full new State Pension and the Personal Allowance. Individuals over State Pension age are eligible for the automatic tax deduction if their income, regardless of source, is below or at the value of the full new State Pension. For those with incomes just above the value of the full new State Pension, the allowance will be gradually withdrawn through a taper. The allowance will apply from 6 April 2027 until 5 April 2030 and will be uprated in line with the full new State Pension across this Parliament.
• VAT treatment of cross-border services – From April 2027, the reverse charge on cross-border supplies of services will be restricted to VAT-registered businesses. Where overseas providers make supplies of services to non-VAT registered UK businesses, they will be required to account for VAT in the normal way. This will be introduced through legislation in Finance Bill 2026-27.
• Offsetting Child Benefit overpayments – HMRC will automatically offset Child Benefit overpayments against the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC), simplifying administration for affected customers by reducing unnecessary payment and repayment transactions. This will be introduced through legislation in Finance Bill 2026-27 with retrospective effect from HICBC’s introduction in January 2013.
• VAT zero-rate for donated medicines – The government will introduce a new zero-rate of VAT for medicines donated in qualifying circumstances, including through early and expanded access schemes. The zero-rate applies to qualifying donations made on or after 23 June 2026.
  

• Business rates: relief for pubs, social clubs and live music venues – The government is increasing the relief for pubs, social clubs and all but the very largest live music venues in England by 20ppt, from 15% to 35% from 1 April 2027. The very largest live music venues (with a rateable value of £1 million or above) will not receive this increased rate of relief, but will continue to benefit from the previously announced 15% relief in 2026-27 and real-term freeze in 2027-28 and 2028-29, as announced in January 2026. This will provide ongoing support to qualifying properties, with the level kept under review alongside the 2029 revaluation.
• Business rates: Small Business Rates Relief thresholds for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) – The government is increasing the SBRR eligibility thresholds for qualifying RHL properties in England from 1 April 2027. The threshold for 100% relief will increase to a rateable value of £18,000, and the threshold for tapered relief will increase to a rateable value of £21,000. These thresholds will provide ongoing support to qualifying properties, with their level kept under review alongside the 2029 revaluation.
• Business rates: freeze bills in real terms for RHL properties for two years – The government will ensure that business rates bill increases for qualifying RHL properties in England are capped by CPI inflation in 2027-28 and 2028-29. This does not apply to increases in rateable values resulting from improvements, or losses in other reliefs such as improvement relief or hardship relief post 1 April 2026.
• Business rates: Supporting Small Business (SSB) scheme – The government is extending the 2026 SSB scheme to those who were in receipt of 2023 SSB, for one year from 1 April 2027 in England.
• Business rates: Transitional Relief Supplement (TRS) – The government is extending the 1p TRS for two years from 1 April 2027. This will be paid each year by those seeing bill increases otherwise below the Transitional Relief and SSB caps.
• Business rates: Valuation Tribunal removal of appeal fees – The government will abolish the £150 and £300 fees charged by the Valuation Tribunal in England for non-domestic rating appeals. This will apply to the 2026 rating list and future lists and will enable fees already paid for appeals on the 2026 list to be refunded.
• Business rates: removing reliefs for vape shops and Adult Gaming Centres – From April 2027, Adult Gaming Centres in England will no longer be eligible for the retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) multipliers, and vape shops in England will no longer be eligible for the RHL multipliers and the Small Business Rates Relief.
  

• Vehicle excise duty (VED) support for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) – Since July, a reduced annual VED rate of £1 has been available to the majority of HGVs. The reduced rate applies to VED licences or renewals taken out between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027. The government is introducing legislation to ensure that, from 28 October 2026, where this reduced rate is obtained for more than 12 months, any excess benefit may be recoverable from the vehicle keeper as a civil debt.
• Vehicle excise duty (VED) upratings – The government will uprate VED rates for cars, vans and motorcycles in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) from 1 April 2027.
• Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) exemption for search and rescue vehicles – At Budget 2025, the government announced that search and rescue charities will receive an exemption from VED for eligible vehicles. The government will introduce legislation for the exemption through the Finance Bill and it will come into effect from 1 April 2027.
• Annual uprating of the Van Benefit Charge for 2027-2028 –The government will increase the Van Benefit Charge and the Car and Van Fuel Benefit Charges in line with CPI from 6 April 2027.
• Temporary VAT zero-rate on electricity –The temporary 0% VAT rate for domestic electricity (six months from 1 October 2026) will be extended for a further three months, to 1 July 2027. This is expected to apply UK-wide from April 2027.
• Fuel duty: 2027-28 main rates – The government will extend the temporary 5p-per-litre fuel duty cut for a further six months to 1 July 2027. The government is also deferring the planned RPI inflation increase to 1 July 2027.
• Red diesel rate for fuel duty 2027-28 – The government will extend the temporary 3.7p-per-litre red diesel duty cut for a further six months, along with the proportional reduction in red diesel duty resulting from the 5p cut to the main fuel duty rate. Red diesel duty will then return to its pre-March 2022 rate and be uprated in line with RPI from 1 July 2027.
• Mileage rates review – As announced on 27 October, the government is permanently increasing tax-free mileage rates for employees and self-employed people who use their own car or van for work. The tax-free, per mile rate will be 55p for the first 10,000 miles and 35p per mile for mileage above 10,000 miles.
• Revert to reduced rate on energy saving materials (ESMs) as planned and include heat batteries in scope – The government will add heat batteries to the list of materials that qualify for the reduced rate of VAT of 5% applying to energy saving materials from 1 April 2027, when installed in residential accommodation and charitable buildings. This will be legislated for via secondary legislation and take effect from 1 April 2027.
  

• Machine Games Duty (MGD) – The Government will increase the rate of MGD from 20% to 25% for machine games with stakes over £1 or prizes over £100 from 1 April 2027. The Government will also change the liability for MGD to machine suppliers for supplier-owned machines under profit sharing arrangements from 1 April 2028 and has launched a 12 week consultation on the implementation of this reform. The consultation will close on 20 January 2027.
• Alcohol duty – The government will increase alcohol duty rates in line with RPI to maintain its real terms value. The government will also increase the relative value of Small Producer Relief compared to the main rates, by moving to a more generous discount taper for products under 3.5% ABV and uprating the marginal discount for products between 3.5% and 8.4% ABV by RPI plus an additional 10%. These changes will be implemented from 1 February 2027. The government has also published an evaluation report on the impacts of the 2023 alcohol duty reforms.
• Gaming duty bands – The Gross Gaming Yield bandings for gaming duty will be frozen from 1 April 2027 until 31 March 2028.
• Air Passenger Duty 2028-29 uprating – The government will increase all rates of Air Passenger Duty in line with RPI from 1 April 2028. These rates will be rounded to the nearest penny.
• Married Couples Allowance (MCA) and Blind Persons Allowance (BPA) uprating – The government will uprate the Married Couple’s Allowance and the Blind Person’s Allowance by CPI. This will be legislated through a Treasury Order and take effect from 6 April 2027.
• Qualifying Care Relief uprating – The government will uprate Qualifying Care Relief, the amount of income tax relief available to foster carers and shared lives carers, by CPI. This will be introduced through a Treasury Order and take effect from 6 April 2027.
• State Pensiion - New state pension to rise by £488 a year from April. Oold basic state pension to rise by £374.40
  

• Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) – The annual charges will increase by 3.5%, in line with September 2026 CPI, for the 2027–28 charging period. This uprating is provided for in existing legislation and will be confirmed in a Treasury Order.
• Removing Stamp Duty Land Tax on rent under assured tenancies – The government will remove Stamp Duty Land Tax on rent paid under assured tenancies in England, effective from 1 May 2026, following the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. This will be introduced in Finance Bill 2026-27.
• Zero-rate on land sold to social housing providers –The government will implement a zero-rate of VAT for land sold to registered providers of social housing (relevant Housing Associations). This will be introduced through secondary legislation in early 2027 and take effect from 1 April 2027.
• First Time Buyer (FTB) ISA – The government will introduce a new FTB ISA from April 2029. The product will replace the Lifetime ISA (LISA) for new savers and provide a 25% government bonus, paid on withdrawal, towards the purchase of a first home worth up to £450,000. The maximum value of the bonus will be capped at £20,000. Existing LISA holders will be able to continue contributing to and using their accounts under the current rules. In addition, the government will reduce the withdrawal charge for existing LISA holders who use their savings to purchase a first home above the £450,000 property price cap.
• Reduce Lifetime ISA (LISA) withdrawal charge for properties above the Property Price Cap – From midnight 29 October 2026 the withdrawal charge for purchases of properties above the LISA property price cap will be reduced to 20%. The charge for unauthorised withdrawals will remain at 25%.
  

• Tax treatment of lump sum death benefits –The government will remove the two-year rule so that beneficiaries will no longer be taxable solely because tax-free pension and lump sum death benefits are paid more than two years after the member’s death. This will apply to any payments made on or after 28 October 2026 and will be introduced through Finance Bill 2026-27.
• Collecting tax due on excess lump sum death benefits – The government will make changes to the way tax is assessed and collected where a deceased member’s lump sum death benefit allowance has been exceeded to provide greater certainty to individual beneficiaries. This will be introduced through Finance Bill 2026-27.
• Inheritance Tax: preventing unintended deductions for liabilities in trust arrangements – The government will amend the inheritance tax rules to clarify when liabilities relating to trust property may reduce the value of assets for inheritance tax purposes, align the treatment of liabilities affecting trust property with personal liabilities, and strengthen anti-avoidance provisions. This will take effect for deaths and other chargeable events occurring on or after 28 October 2026. This will be introduced through Finance Bill 2026-27.
• Changes to tax on property income – The government is increasing all the rates of income tax applied to property income by 2 percentage points. From 2027 to 2028, the property basic rate will be 24%, the property higher rate will be 44%, and the property additional rate will be 49%. These rates will apply across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This will be legislated for in Finance Bill 2026-27 and take effect from 6 April 2027.
• Changes to tax on savings income – The government is increasing all the rates of income tax applied to savings income by 2 percentage points. The savings basic rate will be 24%, the savings higher rate will be 44%, and the savings additional rate will be 49%. These rates will apply across the UK. This will be legislated for in Finance Bill 2026-27 and take effect from 6 April 2027.
• Maintaining the cash ISA limit at £20,000 – The government is retaining the annual cash Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) subscription limits at £20,000.
  

• Modernising taxation of foreign sovereign investments – From 1 January 2029, the government will introduce a new statutory tax regime for foreign sovereigns. This will bring certain real estate income and gains into UK tax, while providing for unique access to Real Estate Investment Trusts for investments in UK real estate.
• Writing down allowances – The government will introduce legislation in Finance Bill 2026-27 to increase the main rate first-year allowance to 50% for expenditure incurred on or after 1 January 2027 and to reduce the main rate writing down allowance to 12%, with effect from 1 April 2027 for Corporation Tax and 6 April 2027 for Income Tax.
• Increase in rate of the Bank Corporation Tax surcharge for a temporary period – The government will temporarily increase the surcharge rate to 6% for 15 months, from 1 January 2027 to 31 March 2028, returning to 3% from 1 April 2028. This measure will be legislated for in Finance Bill 2026–27.
• Improving R&D Tax Reliefs – The government will remove the R&D tax credit Claim Notification Form from 1 April 2027, and simplify the Additional Information Form from autumn 2027. The removal of the Claim Notification Form will be introduced through Finance Bill 2026-27, and changes to the Additional Information Form made through secondary legislation.
• Increase Trading Allowance – The government will increase the Trading Allowance from £1,000 to £3,000, allowing individuals to receive up to £3,000 of trading and miscellaneous income tax-free each year. This will be introduced through Finance Bill 2026-27 and will take effect from 6 April 2027.
• Enterprise Management Incentives 2 – The government will increase the Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) individual option limit from £60,000 to £120,000, remove the interaction with the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) option limit, allowing eligible employees to receive the full amount of options available under each scheme and extend the CSOP exercise period from 10 to 15 years. To help businesses understand how the schemes fit together, CSOP will be known as EMI2, reflecting its role as an option for growing companies that have moved beyond EMI or are not eligible for EMI. The changes will apply from 6 April 2027 and be introduced through Finance Bill 2026-27.
• Capital Gains Tax (CGT) Founders’ Relief – The government will introduce a new Founders’ Relief, providing a 10% CGT rate on up to £10 million of lifetime gains for qualifying founders of high-growth, innovative companies from 6 April 2027. Following a technical consultation on the detailed design launched at Budget, the measure will be introduced through Finance Bill 2026-27.
• Employee Share Schemes: enhanced flexibility – The government will provide greater flexibility under the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) rules by extending the exercise window for individuals following disqualifying events from 90 to 180 days. Companies transitioning to an Employee Ownership Trust structure will retain access to EMI. Shares and share options set aside for employees will be able to be held for 15 years without triggering disguised remuneration rules. The changes will be introduced in Finance Bill 2026-27 and will take effect from 6 April 2027.
• Improving Capital Gains Tax exit charge treatment for trusts affected by trustee migration –The government is making changes to capital gains legislation to provide an administrative easement to the ‘exit charge’ that otherwise applies when a trust ceases to be resident in the United Kingdom. This will make it easier for globally mobile talent to relocate to the UK more quickly. The government will introduce legislation in Finance Bill 2026-27 which will have effect in relation to exit charges on or after 28 October 2026.
• Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI): Removal of the grant of options notification – The government will simplify the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) scheme by removing the separate notification requirement for EMI option grants. From 6 April 2027, grants will instead be reported through the existing EMI end-of-year return.
• Business Assets Disposal Relief (BADR): lifetime limit – The government will reduce the lifetime limit on gains eligible for BADR (which offers a reduced 18% rate of Capital Gains Tax on qualifying disposals) from £1 million to £500,000. The new lifetime limit will apply to disposals made from 6 April 2027 and legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2026-27.
  

John Healy | Chancellor of the Exchequer

"This is a Budget for the working people of Britain. For British businesses, big and small, Delivered at a time when global uncertainties and pressures are swirling worldwide and hitting people here at home. A Budget built on fiscal discipline which matches immediate action today, with clear direction for the future. First, by giving Britain some breathing space on the cost of living and the cost of business, Second, by backing the enterprise of British business to unleash innovation and growth in every postcode, And third, by tackling the big challenges on energy, on national security, on public service procurement and transformation and on housing." Read full speech here.

Kemi Badenoch | Shadow Prime Minister

"I would have thanked the Chancellor for advance sight of his statement, but it was so redacted it was like reading it in the dark. This is Labour’s third Budget in office, this time with a new Chancellor. I believe there is a term in rugby called a “hospital pass”, which sums up the inheritance he received from his predecessor.Last year, she gave us the Budget for benefits. I said it would be her last Budget. I was right. He may want to blame external events, but Labour’s last two Budgets weakened our economy before any wars. He has got a big job to do cleaning up her mess, and this Budget fails to do it." View full response.

Shevaun Haviland | Director-General of the British Chambers of Commerce

“This was a ‘steady as you go’ budget, sending the right signals to business, but lacking big calls that would really shift the economic dial. Most sectors will be pleased to have avoided any further taxes being piled upon them. But, overall, most businesses won’t notice this budget at all. Our key tests for the Chancellor were whether his plans would boost growth and ease costs for business. Many firms will have been hoping for a greater impact. It is clear he has heard business calls for action to ease the costs pressures they are facing but was constrained by a tight fiscal and difficult international environment. There were several positive steps outlined, including Founders Relief and significant reductions or the complete removal of business rates for many in the retail, hospitality and leisure. Additional funding for AI, increased finance through the National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank will also offer new opportunities for entrepreneurs to start and scale up.” Read full response here.

Anna Leach | IOD Chief Economist

“In the short-term, this Budget fulfils its brief of delivering some relief for households and a chosen few in the business community, particularly high street businesses and pubs. Ongoing efforts to improve the ecosystem for entrepreneurs alongside capital reforms are welcome and should help more businesses form and scale in the UK. The devolution agenda has considerable scope to improve the efficiency of the state, albeit the payoff is a fair way off and provided the risks are well managed. There’s tougher talk on tackling public spending, increasing the hope that fiscal risk will no longer fall so squarely on the shoulders of businesses and investors” Read full response here.