Autumn Budget 2026: For the working people of Britain?

Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey presented his first Budget under the new Government in Parliament on Wednesday 28 October 2026.

Under the new Government, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has shared goals of devolving power in Britain so that it does not stay entirely concentrated in London and supports greater public control of national transport such as rail.

Chancellor Healey described it as “for the working people of Britain. It’s a Budget for business, big and small” which is “built on fiscal discipline”.

Experts from City St George’s, University of London reacted to his announcement.

Young people do not deserve to be treated as ultra-exploitable, says Professor Rachel Cohen

Minimum wage for 18–20-year-olds will go up by 3.9%, which is less than was expected, and remains below the National Living Wage for older workers.

Rachel Lara Cohen, Professor of Sociology, Work and Employment, welcomed increased transparency around the gender pay gap, but on the minimum wage for young people said:

It's a real shame that the Government have rolled back on their promise to move towards bringing the wages of young workers up to those of everyone else. 18–20-year-olds are in similar roles and occupations to older workers and do not deserve to be treated as an ultra-exploitable population.

Many of these young workers are also studying. For them lower hourly earnings mean they have to work longer hours to meet core financial needs, something that makes balancing work and study more difficult.

Additionally, with women and working-class young people receiving less financial support from families and therefore being more dependent on earnings, the holding down of pay for 18–20-year-olds is likely to exacerbate existing inequalities.

How will Russians respond to generous contribution towards Ukraine? asks Professor Michael Ben-Gad

On the morning of the Budget, Chancellor Healey and PM Burham spoke with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to state the UK would increase its financial support to Ukraine by £10 billion in today’s Budget.

Michael Ben-Gad, Professor of Economics, with research interests in national security, said:

Healey committed the government to financing the Defence Initiative Plan published back in June which places a large emphasis on nuclear deterrence and air capabilities.

The first thing to note is that the commitment to reach 3% would only be achieved in the next parliament not this one and the 3.5% would happen in at best the parliament after that.

The £10 billion for Ukraine is a relatively large contribution compared to what the EU as a whole seems prepared to cover out of the recent request for 70 billion euros in funding.

The question is how will the Russians respond? Will Western resolve encourage Putin to pursue a settlement or cause him to escalate in another theatre, perhaps by a small incursion into a Baltic state or an attack on North Sea infrastructure.

The UK is ill-prepared to respond and the gradual boost to defence spending over the next few years may prove too late.

A steady as-as-you-go Budget with popular measures, says Professor Steve Schifferes

Much of the Budget was focused on giving British families more “breathing space” by rejecting broad-based tax rises, but Chancellor Healey was doing so against a grim economic background in which many Britons are struggling with the cost of living and young people are struggling to find work.

Steve Schifferes, Honorary Research Fellow in Financial Journalism, analysed the Budget thus so:

This is a ‘steady as you go’ Budget with a plethora of small but popular measures to ‘do what we can’ on the cost of living.

Against a grim economic background with growth forecast to be just 1% next year, and real disposable income falling by 1% (OBR says after 10 years households’ real income will only be better by just 1% - unprecedented in recent times.

Government has reduced the projected ‘headroom’ [the margin by which they meet their fiscal targets) from £23bn to £15bn, leaving less room for manoeuvre.

The big decisions – on welfare spending, defence, and devolution – have been put off until next year’s spending review, the PM’s 10-year plan, and the Milburn and Timms reports on welfare spending.

Government plans to pay for its new measures by getting around £1 bn more tax from banks and £1 bn more from taxing savings and property investment at higher rates, but also hopes for £3bn from greater HMRC enforcement measures.

Much of any extra spending will be financed by cuts, including £1.4 bn taken out of existing dept capital budgets for defence investment spending, 780m from the welfare budget, and £680m in civil service ‘efficiency savings’.

At the end of the forecast period, to keep to the fiscal rules, the OBR estimates that the overall burden of taxation as a % of GDP will have to rise by another 2% to an historic high. It also says that spending in unprotected departments (other than health, education and defence) will have to fall by 2% to meet fiscal rules – something that in previous years the OBR labelled as a ‘fantasy’.

Overall, this year the government is planning to spend an additional £7.6bn, including £1.6bn in tax cuts, but within five years taxes will go back up by £7bn, most likely partly by extending the freeze on raising the higher rate tax bands.