The Budget is on Wednesday 28 October 2026, confirmed by Chancellor John Healey in a letter to the Treasury Select Committee dated 31 July 2026, with an Office for Budget Responsibility forecast published the same day. Before a single new measure is announced, three things are already decided: tax on savings and property income rises to 22, 42 and 47 per cent from 6 April 2027, the cash ISA limit falls from £20,000 to £12,000 for under-65s on the same date, and the £12,570 personal allowance and £50,270 higher-rate threshold stay frozen until April 2031.
Budget season mixes three very different things together. This article keeps them apart: what is already law, what has been announced but not yet designed, and what is pure speculation. It ends with the few sensible things you can do before 28 October without betting on a rumour.
What is actually confirmed about 28 October
The date came from the Chancellor himself. In his letter to the Treasury Select Committee on 31 July 2026, John Healey wrote that he had asked the Office for Budget Responsibility “to prepare an economic and fiscal forecast for publication on 28 October 2026”, adding: “This will be accompanied by the Budget.”
That pairing matters. The last full OBR Economic and fiscal outlook was published on 3 March 2026, so the October document will be the first independent read on borrowing and growth in nearly eight months. The forecast usually sets the size of the problem; the Budget is the answer to it.
Two other dates matter. The Budget representations portal — the formal route for charities, trade bodies and the public to put proposals to the Chancellor — closes at 23:59 on Wednesday 9 September 2026, per the Treasury announcement of the Budget date. The technical consultation on the draft Finance Bill 2026-27 legislation closes on 7 September 2026.
On approach rather than content, Healey has said the Budget will be “built on fiscal discipline” and will move “money and power out of Westminster, and into every postcode around Britain”. Those are statements of intent, not a list of measures — and nobody outside the Treasury has that list.
The changes already decided, whatever happens on the day
This is the part most coverage skips, and the part that will actually move money in your accounts. Almost all of it was decided at or around Budget 2025 on 26 November 2025, with start dates running out to 2031. The income tax measures are already law: the rate rises on savings, property and dividend income, the threshold freeze and the inheritance tax treatment of unused pensions all sit in the Finance Act 2026 (c. 11). The cash ISA cut, the salary sacrifice charge and the council tax surcharge are announced and dated but still need their own legislation. None of it is a Budget rumour.
| Change | Takes effect | Who it touches |
|---|---|---|
| Dividend ordinary rate 8.75% → 10.75%; upper 33.75% → 35.75% (additional 39.35% unchanged) | 6 April 2026 — in force | 3.9m with dividend income |
| Savings income taxed at 22% / 42% / 47% instead of 20% / 40% / 45% | 6 April 2027 | 3.8m savers |
| Property income given its own rates of 22% / 42% / 47% | 6 April 2027 | 2.4m landlords |
| Cash ISA limit cut to £12,000 for under-65s (£20,000 at 65+); overall ISA allowance stays £20,000 | 6 April 2027 — regulations due autumn 2026 | Cash ISA savers under 65 |
| Unused pension funds and death benefits brought into the estate for inheritance tax | 6 April 2027 | Estates with undrawn pensions |
| Personal allowance £12,570 and basic rate limit £37,700 (higher-rate threshold £50,270) | Frozen to April 2031 | Every income taxpayer |
| High Value Council Tax Surcharge: £2,500 to £7,500 a year on English homes worth £2m+ | April 2028 — announced, not yet legislated | Owners, not occupiers, in England |
| Employer and employee NICs on salary-sacrificed pension contributions above £2,000 a year | 6 April 2029 — announced, future Finance Bill | Employees using salary sacrifice |
Where the savings and property rate rises actually bite
HMRC’s impact note on the rate changes is specific about scale: 3.8 million people with savings income, 2.4 million with property income and 3.9 million with dividend income affected by 2029-30, and a yield rising from £285 million in 2026-27 to £2,340 million by 2030-31.
Two percentage points sounds small, and it only bites once interest exceeds the personal savings allowance, which gov.uk sets at £1,000 for basic-rate and £500 for higher-rate taxpayers, and nil for additional-rate taxpayers. On a £30,000 pot paying 4 per cent, that is £1,200 of interest, of which £200 is taxable for a basic-rate payer with a full allowance — £44 of tax from April 2027 instead of £40, so £4 a year more.
That is why the ISA change lands where it does. The Treasury’s ISA reform 2027 factsheet confirms the cash ISA limit drops to £12,000 for under-65s from 6 April 2027 with the overall £20,000 allowance unchanged, plus anti-circumvention rules: a 22 per cent charge on interest paid on cash held in a non-cash ISA, and no transfers from non-cash ISAs into a cash ISA for savers under 65. We cover what the 2027 cash ISA rule change does to your allowance separately.
The threshold freeze is doing more work than any single measure
If you track one thing across this Budget cycle, make it the freeze. Budget 2025 confirmed thresholds would stay “at their current levels for a further three years from April 2028 to April 2031”, and the Overview of Tax Legislation and Rates sets the personal allowance at £12,570 and the basic rate limit at £37,700 through to 2030-31.
The House of Commons Library briefing on frozen income tax thresholds puts numbers on it. The OBR estimates the freeze raises an extra £55.5 billion in 2030/31 against uprating, brings 5.2 million more people into income tax and creates 4.8 million more higher-rate taxpayers, lifting the share in the higher and additional bands from 15 per cent in 2021 to 24 per cent by 2030/31.
No rate is announced, no headline is written, and yet it is the largest single tax change of the period. Our explainer on how frozen thresholds and fiscal drag work covers the mechanics; to see it in your own numbers, run a pay rise at £50,270 and one just below it through our take-home pay calculator.
Most of the 2027 changes are already decided
You have until 5 April 2027 to use a £20,000 cash ISA allowance, before the cash limit falls to £12,000 for under-65s. That is a plan you can make today.
Explore GetSmartSaver →Announced but not designed: the blanks the Budget has to fill
This is where a Budget genuinely does change things. Two policies exist in principle but lack the numbers that decide whether they are useful to you.
The First Time Buyer ISA
The Treasury’s First Time Buyer ISA consultation, which ran to 18 August 2026, sets out a product for UK residents buying a first home with a mortgage, in cash and stocks-and-shares versions, with a government bonus paid on withdrawal for the purchase and none of the Lifetime ISA’s exit penalty. The account must be open a year before the bonus applies.
What is missing decides whether it beats what you already have: the bonus rate, the annual subscription limit and the property price cap are all “to be confirmed at a future fiscal event”. Until those exist, nobody can honestly tell you whether to wait.
The High Value Council Tax Surcharge
The High Value Council Tax Surcharge is a new annual charge on owners of English homes worth £2 million or more from April 2028, running from £2,500 a year to £7,500 above £5 million and estimated to raise £0.4 billion in 2029-30. It hits fewer than one in a hundred properties, falls on the owner rather than the occupier, and revaluations are planned every five years.
The detailed design was consulted on between 19 May and 14 July 2026 and the government has not published its response yet, so the rules are not final: liability where freehold and leasehold split, exemptions for student, military, diplomatic and social housing, appeals to the Valuation Tribunal for England, and deferral until sale for owners who are asset-rich but income-poor were all put out for comment. The surcharge is not law yet.
Speculation, and how to read it
Everything else belongs in the third bucket. We have no insider knowledge, and we will not predict specific tax rises.
The recurring pre-Budget stories are the same handful every year: pension tax relief and the tax-free lump sum, capital gains tax, fuel duty, further ISA reform. They resurface because they are large, well-understood levers. Their reappearance is not evidence that anything is happening, and in most years most of them do not.
It helps to know where they come from: submissions to the representations portal, which anyone can make; inference from fiscal arithmetic that is not public yet; or last year’s copy, run again. A practical test is that a real claim is traceable to a named government document with a date — draft legislation, an impact note, a Treasury factsheet, a ministerial statement. If the only source is “the Chancellor is understood to be considering”, treat it as speculation: useful for context, useless for decisions.
The economic backdrop, and the politics without the spin
The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75 per cent on 30 July 2026, with the next decision on 17 September 2026 — before the Budget, not after. The ONS measured CPI inflation at 2.6 per cent in the 12 months to June 2026, down from 2.8 per cent in May, with the July figure published on 19 August 2026. The Bank’s July Monetary Policy Report projects inflation reaching 3.2 per cent in October and November 2026 before easing.
This is also a first Budget from a new administration, which is why the uncertainty is real. Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July 2026 and John Healey became Chancellor the same day, so 28 October is the first chance to set out a fiscal programme in full rather than in speeches.
We take no view on whether that programme is right. Supporters say shifting money out of Westminster is overdue and the fiscal rules will hold; critics say devolving spending while borrowing costs are elevated adds risk. Those are arguments about values as much as arithmetic. For the detail rather than the commentary, see what the new government’s announced policies mean for family finances.
What is genuinely worth doing before 28 October
None of this depends on guessing the Budget right. Each would still be sensible if the Chancellor announced nothing at all.
Use this year’s ISA allowance while the cash limit is still £20,000
For 2026/27 you can still put the full £20,000 into a cash ISA at any age. From 6 April 2027 that falls to £12,000 unless you are 65 or over. ISA allowances do not carry forward, so an unused one is simply gone. If cash ISAs are part of your plan, this is the most time-limited item on the list.
Check your pension contributions against the allowance
The pension annual allowance is £60,000, tapering where threshold income exceeds £200,000 and adjusted income exceeds £260,000, and you can carry forward unused allowance from the previous three tax years. The salary sacrifice NICs charge above £2,000 a year does not start until 6 April 2029, so there is time to plan rather than react.
Use the capital gains allowance you already have
Gov.uk puts the capital gains annual exempt amount at £3,000 for 2026/27, with rates of 18 per cent within the basic rate band and 24 per cent above it on most assets. It does not roll over. Realising gains within the exemption, or using both spouses’ exemptions, is housekeeping rather than a Budget bet.
What not to do
- Do not panic-sell investments on the strength of a rumour. Crystallising a gain to pre-empt a tax that may never appear can cost more than the tax would have.
- Do not take pension tax-free cash you do not need. It is generally irreversible, it moves money from a tax-sheltered pot into a taxable one, and no announcement has been made.
- Do not restructure a property portfolio in six weeks. The property rate change is confirmed for 6 April 2027 — time enough to take proper advice.
- Do not assume rates stay put. Bank Rate is 3.75 per cent with a decision due on 17 September 2026, and savings rates move with it regardless of the Budget.
- Do not act on a headline without the document. Wait for the Budget papers and the OBR forecast on 28 October.
Frequently asked questions
When is the 2026 Budget and what is published alongside it?
The Budget is on Wednesday 28 October 2026. Chancellor John Healey confirmed the date in a letter to the Treasury Select Committee dated 31 July 2026, and asked the Office for Budget Responsibility to publish an economic and fiscal forecast the same day. It will be the first OBR forecast since 3 March 2026, so revised borrowing and growth figures come with it.
Is the cash ISA allowance being cut in this Budget?
The cut has already been announced, so it does not depend on 28 October. From 6 April 2027 the cash ISA limit falls to £12,000 for savers under 65, while those aged 65 and over keep £20,000. The overall ISA allowance stays at £20,000, so the balance can still go into stocks and shares.
Will tax on savings interest go up?
Yes, and it is already legislated rather than a Budget rumour. From 6 April 2027 savings income is taxed at 22, 42 and 47 per cent instead of 20, 40 and 45. The personal savings allowance is unchanged at £1,000 for basic-rate and £500 for higher-rate taxpayers, and nil for additional-rate taxpayers, so many savers pay nothing extra.
Are income tax thresholds still frozen?
Yes. The personal allowance stays at £12,570 and the higher-rate threshold at £50,270, with Budget 2025 extending the freeze by three years to April 2031. The OBR estimates the freeze raises an extra £55.5 billion in 2030/31 and brings 5.2 million more people into income tax than inflation-linked thresholds would have done.
Should I take my pension tax-free lump sum before the Budget?
Nobody outside the Treasury knows what is in the Budget, and taking tax-free cash you do not need is usually irreversible. The pension annual allowance is £60,000 in 2026/27, with up to three years of carry forward. If you are weighing a large, permanent decision on the strength of press speculation, take regulated advice first.
What is the High Value Council Tax Surcharge and would I pay it?
It is a new annual charge on owners of residential property in England worth £2 million or more, starting in April 2028. Announced amounts run from £2,500 a year to £7,500 for homes above £5 million, and it is paid by the owner rather than the occupier. Fewer than one per cent of properties qualify, and the detailed design is not final.
Last reviewed: August 2026. Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year, 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, and come from HM Treasury, HMRC, the OBR, the House of Commons Library, the Bank of England and the ONS as published at the time of writing. Scotland sets its own income tax rates on wages and pensions, but savings and dividend income are taxed at UK-wide rates; the new property income rates apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the devolved governments to be engaged on Scotland and Wales; the High Value Council Tax Surcharge is England-only. Anything not yet announced is speculation. This is general information, not personal financial advice — check your position on gov.uk, or get free help from Citizens Advice or MoneyHelper, before acting on it.
