Budget 2026: Key points at a glance
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Published
Chancellor John Healey has set out the government’s tax and spending plans in his Budget – the first since Andy Burnham became prime minister.
Here is a summary of the main points.

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One-off £100 payment for 20 million households in council tax bands A-D in England to help deal with rising energy bills, with equivalent funding for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
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Standing charges – fixed daily fees customers pay regardless of usage – to be removed from household gas bills in England, Scotland and Wales, with costs added to the unit rate instead
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VAT cut on electricity bills extended beyond April to July
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A green levy – the Gas Shipper Obligation to fund hydrogen projects – to be removed from energy bills and put on to general taxation
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Freeze on fuel duty extended again to July
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Import taxes to be removed on more than 100 food products, including gherkins and marmalade, as well as kerosene and fertilisers
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A 55p per mile tax-free mileage rate for those driving up to 10,000 miles for work made permanent, with the rate rising from 25p per mile to 35p above that distance
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A new scheme taking 25% off electricity bills for 10,000 firms to launch in April, with payments backdated for energy costs this year

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New, flat-rate state pension to rise by £488 a year from April – equivalent to 3.9% – under the triple lock policy, with old basic state pension to rise by £374.40
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A new tax-free allowance for low-income pensioners, to ensure those with income up to the value of the full new State Pension will not pay income tax
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Legal minimum wage to rise by 3.9% in April
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Unpaid carers will no longer lose their entire Carer’s Allowance if they earn more than £204 a week after tax, with a taper rate introduced instead
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Parental pay extended to self-employed fathers and parents in same-sex couples
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Your pay, energy bills and savings: How the Budget affects you
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Published26 minutes ago
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Surcharge banks pay on their profits to rise from 3% to 6% for 15 months, starting in January
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Threshold at which High Street shops start paying business rates in England to be increased from £12,000 to £18,000, meaning businesses would pay no rates on properties with a rateable value below this level
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Adult games centres and vape shops will not qualify for business rates relief
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Taxes on gambling machines to rise from 20% to 25% for higher stakes machines
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Requirements for online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and Temu to be strengthened to prevent sellers using their platforms avoiding paying VAT

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An extra £1bn for social and affordable housing in England, taking total funding for the 10-year programme to more than £40bn
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An extra £432m for a programme aimed at giving every rough sleeper in England a route off the streets by Christmas

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All business rates to be retained locally by the end of the decade, with mayors to keep 20% of revenue from next year
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A share of income tax receipts to go to mayors from 2028
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Regional bodies and mayors in England to get greater powers over spending, starting with £285m next year for things like housing, transport and High Streets
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Government to work with mayors to design a £1.5bn borrowing facility, enabling investment in larger projects

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Defence Investment Plan to be fully funded by reprioritising budgets across government, after Sir Keir Starmer only committed £10.3bn for the £15bn plan
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Details of how the government will meet a Nato commitment to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035 to be set out at next year’s Spending Review, with a target date for 3% in 2030
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Extra £10bn of economic and military support for Ukraine

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Amount people can put into tax-free cash Isas (Individual Savings Accounts) to remain at £20,000 a year, with plans to lower the limit to £12,000 for under-65s scrapped
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More than £600m of investment in projects related to artificial intelligence (AI), including an extra £120m for the UK’s AI Security Institute and £100m for a national AI Biosecurity Lab
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Fund to tackle misogyny in schools, at work and in communities to get £15m

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