Leading now
The Autumn Budget 2026
The biggest money day of the year. We've already laid out what's confirmed, what's rumoured, and what each change would do to your pensions, ISAs, tax and property — and on the day, we update it live as the Chancellor speaks.
Latest updates
live feedChecked 5 Oct — nothing is added here unless it is a confirmed change you can act on.
Every issue, with a calculator
9 trackedThe 0.48% property tax — ruled out
The plan to scrap council tax and stamp duty for a 0.48% annual charge on your home's value is off the table — Number 10 says the reports aren't true, and stamp duty isn't being reformed on 28 October. So nothing changes for you: council tax carries on as it is, and you pay the same stamp duty when you buy. The calculator stays up because the idea keeps coming back.
Full coverage →Pensions fall into inheritance tax
From April 2027, unused pension pots count towards your estate for IHT — a big shift for anyone planning to pass wealth on.
Full coverage →The April 2027 ISA changes
From 6 April 2027 the cash ISA limit is £12,000 if you're under 65 (65+ keep £20,000). Cash sitting inside a stocks & shares ISA has 22% taken off its interest, that ISA can't be made up entirely of money market funds, and under-65s can't move money from a stocks & shares ISA into a cash ISA. The regulations were laid on 14 September 2026.
Full coverage →Landlords: +2% on rental profit
Income tax on rental profits rises two points for individual landlords in England. Your after-tax yield changes — see where you land.
Read the coverage →Energy: the cap is up 4%, and January looks worse
Since 1 October the cap has been £1,723 a year for a typical household paying by direct debit, up 4% from £1,663 — about £5 a month more. Ofgem confirmed it on 26 August. That 4% already has the electricity VAT cut inside it, worth about £45 a year, which is why Ofgem says this period cannot be compared directly with the one before. It was gas doing the work: gas bills went up 8% while electricity stayed broadly flat, so a home without gas saw under 1%. The cap limits the unit rates and standing charges you can be charged, not your total bill, so what you actually pay still follows what you use. Around 22 million households on default tariffs are affected; the 11 million on fixed deals are not until those deals end. January is the one to watch now: Cornwall Insight forecast on 30 September that the cap would rise about 16% to £1,999 a year on wholesale gas prices, and nearly half the window that sets that figure had already passed when they said so. It is a forecast, not the figure — Ofgem publishes the real January cap in late November.
Full coverage →Electricity VAT: 0% to 31 March
The zero rate of VAT on domestic electricity runs from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, in place of the usual 5%. It is worth about £45 a year on a typical bill, and suppliers were expected to pass it on to everyone, including people on fixed tariffs. It covers Great Britain only — Northern Ireland stays at 5%, with comparable funding going to the NI Executive instead — and gas is unchanged at 5% everywhere. Two things follow that are easy to miss. The Ofgem cap's 4% rise already has this cut inside it, which is why Ofgem says the period cannot be compared directly with the one before: the underlying rise in what energy costs is larger than 4%. And when the zero rate ends on 31 March 2027, 5% returns to electricity bills, about £45 a year, five days before the new tax year begins. The Treasury said any longer-term action would be taken at the Budget.
Full coverage →Bank Rate: 3.75%
Held at 3.75% on 17 September by six votes to three, the same split as July — three of the nine again wanted 4%. Inflation is why it is close: prices were 3.1% higher than a year earlier in August, and the Bank expects that to reach about 3¾% by the end of this year. Nothing on your tracker or variable mortgage changes this month, and savings rates hold — which still means a basic-rate taxpayer with much over £25,000 in an ordinary account is paying tax on the interest. The next decision is 5 November, eight days after the Budget.
Full coverage →Next April's state pension
The first of the two numbers is in: wages rose 3.9% in the May–July window the triple lock uses. On the full new state pension of £241.30 a week that is about £250.70, or roughly £489 more over a year. It is not settled — the figure is provisional, and September's inflation, published on 21 October, is measured against it with the higher one winning. August inflation was 3.1%, so wages lead for now. The part worth knowing: the full new state pension currently sits £22 below the frozen £12,570 personal allowance. A 3.9% rise would put it about £467 above, so from April it would start using up the allowance on its own. One further thing, announced on 29 September: the triple lock itself changes from April 2030. From then the state pension goes up by at least inflation or 2.5%, plus whatever more is needed to hold its value against average earnings — so over time it tracks earnings instead of taking the highest of three numbers. April 2027, 2028 and 2029 are unaffected.
Full coverage →Salary sacrifice: NI-free cap from 2029
From 6 April 2029 only the first £2,000 a year you sacrifice into a pension stays free of National Insurance. Sacrifice £6,000 and the extra £4,000 costs a basic-rate employee about £320 a year in NI, and the employer about £600. Income tax relief is unchanged.
Full coverage →News you can act on, not just read
Anyone can tell you the Chancellor stood up. The question that matters is what it does to your money — and that's the bit the headlines leave out. Here's the difference.
What it means for you
Every issue is written around the one thing you care about: are you better or worse off, and by how much — not just what was announced.
A calculator on every issue
No hand-waving. Each change comes with a free tool so you put in your own numbers and see your figure, in seconds.
Model it against your whole plan
Then take it into WealthR and see the change ripple through your net worth, forecasts and retirement — your real picture, free.
Go deeper than the news
Plain-English UK money guides on the parts worth getting right — updated every tax year.
Browse the Playbooks →Never be caught out by a money change again
Track your net worth, pensions, tax and forecasts in one place — so when the news moves, you already know where you stand.
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WealthR Live is general information, not regulated financial advice. Figures for rumoured measures are illustrative and may not happen.