Budget day: what is already decided for your pay, fuel and home, and what to watch

Chancellor John Healey’s first Budget is on Wednesday. Here is what is already settled for your tax, fuel and home, what the government has promised, and where Kent stands.

Chancellor John Healey delivers his first Budget on Wednesday 28 October. Nothing in it is confirmed until he speaks. But several things that affect your pay, your fuel bills and your home are already settled, and the government has made a handful of promises it says will be confirmed on the day.

The Budget is also the first under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office in July.

What happens on Wednesday

Healey will make his statement to the Commons on Wednesday. The same afternoon, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent body that checks the government’s sums, publishes its new forecasts.

The government’s finances are under pressure going in. Borrowing this financial year is already £6 billion above what the OBR forecast in March. The cost of government borrowing, measured by the interest rate on bonds the government sells to raise money, hit its highest point since 2007 earlier this month.

What is already decided

The income tax personal allowance, the amount you earn before paying any tax, stays at £12,570. The point at which you start paying the higher rate stays at £50,270. Both are frozen until April 2031, a decision made in last year’s Budget.

The freeze matters because as pay rises, more of it is pulled into higher tax bands even though the bands have not moved.

Fuel duty is 52.95p a litre. A planned rise was postponed in May, when the government said the rate would stay until the end of 2026. It has not said what happens after that.

What the government has promised

A scheme called Your First Home is expected to be confirmed on Wednesday. First-time buyers would need a deposit of around 2.5%, with the government lending 20% of the purchase price. It would apply only to new-build homes from developers that sign up. Income caps and local price caps have not been set yet; those details are due on Wednesday.

The government has also said Healey will set out plans to give regional leaders more say over how a share of some national tax money is spent. Kent was not named in the announcement. Healey said the aim is to “transfer more power and resources out of Westminster and into postcodes across the country.”

Prices and pay

Inflation, the rate at which prices are rising, was 3.5% in the year to September. Transport costs, particularly motor fuel, made the largest upward push.

Regular pay in June to August was 3.7% higher than a year earlier. Once rising prices are taken into account, total pay was only 0.7% ahead. The unemployment rate fell to 4.7% in the three months to August.

What it means for Kent

In Kent, 33,605 people were claiming unemployment-related benefits in September, 3.4% of working-age residents. That is up from 3.2% a year earlier, though still below the UK rate of 3.9%. In Medway the rate was higher, at 4.2%.

Kent County Council is forecasting a £21.4 million overspend this financial year, driven mainly by the cost of placing children in care and adult social care. There is also a separate forecast gap of £109 million on funding for children and young people with special educational needs. Council funding for next year is normally set in December, after the Budget sets the overall level of spending.

The average first-time buyer in Kent paid £283,559 for a home in August. Whether the Your First Home scheme would help buyers in Kent depends on the price caps the government has yet to announce.

What to look for on Wednesday

Will the income tax thresholds remain frozen, or will Healey change the timetable?
What happens to fuel duty after December 2026?
What are the income and price caps for Your First Home, and do they cover Kent?
Do the OBR’s new forecasts show the government’s borrowing plans adding up?

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Budget day: what is already decided for your pay, fuel and home, and what to watch Quiz

5 questions

Sources

Source article: ONS, Public sector finances, UK: September 2026

Image: AI-generated illustration by Kent Local News (Aegis Lumina)

Published: 27 October 2026

This is the short version of our in-depth Business Read, built from the same official figures: the ONS, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Bank of England, HM Land Registry and Kent County Council’s committee papers. It describes the position before the Budget and does not predict its contents. If you believe anything here is inaccurate, contact editor@kentlocalnews.co.uk — see our corrections policy.