Autumn Budget 2025: Departmental Breakdown

Treasury

• Stability rule will be met in 2029/30 by £21.7bn and the investment rule by £24.4bn.
• £2500 per year High Value Council Tax Surcharge for properties worth more than £2m, £7,500 per year for properties valued above £5m, to be paid by property owners. Government will consult on deferral options.
• No increase to income tax, National Insurance Contributions (NICs) or VAT.
• Maintain the income tax Personal Allowance at £12,570 and higher rate threshold at £50,270 from April 2028 to April 2031.
• Maintain the NICs Primary Threshold, Lower Profits Limit (LPL), Upper Earnings Limit (UEL) and Upper Profits Limit (UPL) from April 2028 to April 2031.
• From April 2027, the property basic rate of tax will be 22%, the property higher rate will be 42%, and the property additional rate will be 47%. These changes will be legislated for in Finance Bill 2025-26 and take effect from 6 April 2027.
• 2% increase in ordinary and upper rates of tax on dividend income from April 2026.
• 2% increase in the tax rate on savings income across all bands from April 2027.
• VAT relief for business donations of goods to charity for distribution to those in need from 1 April 2026.
• Reform ISA system by keeping full £20,000 allowance while designating £8,000 exclusively for investment from April 2027. Over 65s are to retain the full cash allowance.
• Over 50% of the ISA market including Hargreaves Lansdown, HSBC, Lloyds, Vanguard and Barclays to launch new online hubs to guide investment.
• Inheritance Tax changes to allow the transfer of 100% relief allowances between spouses.
• Payments made under the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme to be exempted from inheritance tax and legislation to implement a number of recommendations in the Inquiry’s Additional Report will become law by 31 December 2025.
• New powers for HMRC to check tax avoidance, reclaiming up to £10bn.
• Expand Targeted Case Review to accelerate the recovery of pandemic-related fraud through the Public Authorities Fraud Investigation and Enforcement Service.
• Government will strengthen HMRC powers to tackle fraud within the Construction Industry Scheme.
• £59m investment in new technology over the next five years to provide taxpayers with real-time digital prompts for VAT filing software from April 2027, require all VAT invoices to be issued in a specified electronic format from April 2029.

Cabinet Office

• Each Department to appoint a Non-Executive Directors to identify opportunities for additional efficiencies before the next Spending Review.
• Additional savings targets for all Departments to meet at the next Spending Review, resulting in £2.9bn of savings in 2028-29, rising to £4.9bn by 2030-31.
• Reduction of Civil Service back-office administration costs by 16% by 2029-30.
• Reform procurement to shape markets and manage demand, with a focus on identifying, supporting and protecting high-growth sectors within the modern Industrial Strategy and foundational sectors.
• Launch an “Innovation Marketplace” and establish a task-and-finish group to remove internal barriers to innovative procurement, accelerating access to procurement opportunities for strategically important firms.
• Each Department will appoint a senior Procurement Innovation Champion to embed innovation into procurement decisions.

Department for Business and Trade

• £30m for the Kernow Industrial Growth Fund (supporting sectors including critical minerals and marine innovation).
• 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties to receive lower business rates.
• A new £500,000 property value threshold used for applying higher business rates to large warehouses and similar premises.
• A new customs duty on parcels of any value to prevent e-commerce undercutting.
• Reduce Employee Ownership Trust Capital Gains Tax relief from 100% to 50%.
• 3-year exemption from Stamp Duty Reserve Tax for companies in the UK.
• Business rates retention pilots extended until 2029 in West of England, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester.
• New national licensing framework created to support pubs and late-night venues.
• A new 40% first-year allowance to apply to main rate investment from January 2026, and the main writing-down rate will drop from 18% to 14% from April 2026.
• £59m over five years to fund real-time digital prompts in VAT filing software from April 2027 and in Corporation Tax software from April 2028.
• Eligibility for Enterprise Management Incentives expanded, allowing more high-growth companies to offer tax-advantaged share options.
• Commitment to keep corporation tax at current levels.
• Call for evidence launched on how tax system can support entrepreneurs.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

• Increase the Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40%, and Online Betting Duty from 15% to 25%.
• A new 25% General Betting Duty rate for remote betting from April 2027.
• Increase to Machine Games Duty on slot machines in betting shops and online casinos.
• Bingo duty abolished from April 2026.
• Casino Gaming Duty bands will be frozen in 2026-27, then uprated in line with RPI.

Department for Education 

• £5m for increased book supplies in secondary schools and £18m to improve playgrounds in England.
• A new Youth Guarantee providing £820m over the next three years, ensuring every young person a place in college, an apprenticeship or personalised job support. After 18 months, 18–21-year-olds will be offered paid work instead of benefits.
• Freeze to the Plan 2 Student loan repayment threshold at its 2026-27 level for three years from April 2027.
• Commitment to publish a Schools White Paper early in the new year, setting out plans for reform of special educational needs provision.
• Expand free breakfast clubs by launching the first phase of national rollout with 2,000 new schools joining the scheme over 2026-27.
• Expand free school meals eligibility to all pupils in England with a parent receiving UC.
• Commitment to introduce new legislation to limit the number of branded items schools can require, lowering the cost of school uniforms.
• Commitment to protect UKRI’s investment in core quality-related block grant and Higher Education Innovation Funding - a cumulative increase of over £425m.
• Launch of entrepreneurship fellowships to support commercialisation in universities in the UK.
• Review of childcare provision by the Department, to simplify the system for providers and families.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

• New Environmental Delivery Plans to drive pro-growth interventions in nature that provide better benefits than the current status quo.
• Commitment to publish White Paper on water reform later in 2025.
• The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will work to introduce a national level regulation to reduce the administrative burden on the largest food retailers.
• A new Land Mediation Grant to provide public bodies with grants to remediate land where landfill tax is an unaffordable blocker.
• Commitment to consult in early 2026 on the introduction of mandatory certification for mechanically recycled plastic packaging for businesses to claim an exemption from Plastic Packaging Tax.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero 

• Extend the 5p fuel duty cut for another year to September 2026.
• Scrap the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme on energy bills from April 2026.
• Commitment to fund 75% of the cost of the Renewables Obligation for households in 2026-27, 2027- 28 and 2028-29.
• Extend the £150 Warm Home Discount to a further 3 million of the poorest households.
• Commitment to introduce the already announced British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme, which will cut electricity prices for 7,000 businesses by up to £35-40/MWh.
• Welcome the findings set out in the Fingleton Report on nuclear regulation with a commitment to establish a plan to deliver its recommendations within 3 months.
• Update to the Green Financing Framework to add nuclear energy to the list of eligible expenditures for green financing.
• Commitment to build Small Modular Reactors at Wylfa.
• Prime Minister issuing a Strategic Steer to accelerate safe and efficient delivery for the civil, defence, and decommissioning nuclear sectors.
• Legislate to give the Office of Nuclear Regulation the ability to consider overall strategic factors, such as energy and national security imperatives, in the delivery of its statutory purposes.
• Replace the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) with the permanent Oil and Gas Profits Mechanism (OGPM) - a revenue-based mechanism which only operates in times of high prices.

Department for Health and Social Care 

• All savings made in the NHS will be reinvested back into frontline service.
• £300m investment in NHS technology to improve patient services.
• 250 new Neighbourhood Health Centres, with over 100 delivered by 2030.
• Freeze on NHS prescription charges, keeping the cost at £9.90 in 2026/27.
• Changes to the threshold of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, decreasing it from 5g to 4.5g of sugar per 100ml.
• Extend the Soft Drinks Industry Levy to more products, including sugar milk-based drinks.
• Commitment to uprate tobacco and alcohol duties as planned.
• A new Vaping Duty from 2026.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

• £16m from the Growth Mission fund for the construction of a STEM centre in Darlington.
• Commitment to introduce two new AI Growth Zones in Wales.
• £10m investment in semiconductors in South Wales.
• New consultation on measures to create a new right for leaseholders to request a gigabit broadband connection and a duty for freeholders not to unreasonably refuse the request.
• Treble investment in metascience in 2026-27, including in the UK’s world-leading Metascience Unit.
• Expand distributed peer review across each of UKRI’s research councils.
• A new AI for Science Strategy, backed by £137m of investment over the next four years.

Department for Transport 

• 3p per mile duty for EVs and 1.5p per mile duty for plug-in hybrids from April 2028. The charge will rise with inflation.
• 5p fuel duty cut until the end of August 2026, with rates then gradually returning to March 2022 levels by March 2027.
• A new Fuel Finder scheme to mandate that petrol forecourts share real time price rises.
• Freeze in all regulated rail fares in England for one year starting from March 2026.
• 10-year 100% business rates relief for eligible EV charge points and EV-only forecourts.
• Extend Drive35 funding programme, allocating a further £1.5bn to 2035.
• Expensive Car Supplement threshold for zero emission vehicles raised from £40,000 to £50,000.
• £100m extra in EV charging infrastructure.
• Excluding private hire taxi services from VAT discount intended for coach services from January 2026.
• Uprate all rates of Air Passenger Duty in line with RPI from 1 April 2027.

Department for Work and Pensions 

• Remove two-child benefit cap lifting 450,000 children out of poverty.
• Funding to make training under-25 apprentices free for SMEs.
• £2,000 cap on pension salary sacrifice NICs relief from April 2029.
• Increase to basic and new State Pension by 4.8% from April 2026, in line with earnings growth.
• The National Living Wage will rise to £12.71 per hour for workers aged 21 and over.
• The 18 to 20 Minimum Wage will rise to £10.85 per hour.
• Remove access to the cheapest Class 2 Voluntary National Insurance Contributions for individuals living abroad.
• Increase the initial residency or contributions requirement for Voluntary National Insurance Contributions to 10 years.
• Face-to face disability assessments to be reinstated for those claiming welfare benefits.
• Luxury vehicles removed from Motability Scheme to refocus funding on cost-effective leasing for disabled users.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs 

• Commitment to continuing the freeze on hostile Russian assets.

Devolution and Regions

• £13bn of funding for seven Mayoral Strategic Authorities to invest in skills, business support and infrastructure.
• Trial of place-based budgets in five Mayoral Strategic Authorities to assess the pooling of public service budgets in local areas.
• £370m of funding announced for Northern Ireland Executive.
• £505m of funding announced for the Welsh Government.
• £820m of funding announced for the Scottish Government.
• A new Leeds City Fund creating a business rates retention (BRR) zone in Leeds city centre, within which Leeds City Council can retain 100% of business rates growth above an agreed baseline for 25 years.
• Extend the Greater London Authority enhanced BRR arrangements and the 100% pilots in Cornwall, the West of England and Liverpool City Region to 2028-29.
• £902m over four years for a new local growth fund for the 11 mayoral city regions in the North and Midlands.
• £500m Mayoral Revolving Growth Fund for mayors in the North and Midlands.
• Allocation of funding from Growth Mission Fund:
  • £20m to construct a sports quarter in Peterborough
  • £20m for redevelopment of the Inchgreen dry docks in Inverclyde
  • £16m for the construction of a STEM centre in Darlington
  • Regeneration projects in Fife to follow.

Home Office 

• Claw back excess profits from hotels used for asylum accommodation as the Government phases out hotel use.
• Commitment to launch a consultation on reforms to indefinite leave to remain and access to taxpayer-funded benefits.
• Abolish Police and Crime Commissioners.
• Expand the High Potential Individual route to graduates from the world’s top 100 universities.
• A new Innovator Founder route allowing international students to transition directly from study into entrepreneurship.
• Reform the Global Talent visa to make it simpler and easier for top science and design talent to access visas.

Ministry of Defence 

• £1.5bn over the Parliament in energetics and munitions, with construction to start next year after identifying 13 potential factories for manufacturing munitions and explosive devices.
• The Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Security Industry Authority (SIA) have been provided with flexibility to reinvest the savings and efficiencies target to protect vital Defence and national security outputs.
• Defence Housing Strategy published, backed by an extra £1.5bn investment this Parliament and a total of £9bn over the next decade.
• Commitment to continue collaboration with allies for sustainable end to the war Ukraine.
• Employer NICs relief for hiring veterans will be extended to April 2028, ahead of a transition to support delivered through spending settlements.
• Strengthening of the UK’s trade defence toolkit and update trade remedies framework to align with international peers. Legislation will be included in Finance Bill 2025–26.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government 

• New national licensing framework for the hospitality sector including late-night venues.
• Gov will not converge Landfill Tax, instead preventing the gap between the two rates of Landfill Tax getting any wider.
• A decision on how Social Rent convergence will be implemented will be announced in January 2026.
• £48m investment in planning including the expansion of the Pathways to Planning Graduate Scheme.
• £1.3bn of the National Housing Delivery Fund will be devolved across Greater Manchester, Greater London, Liverpool City Region, the North-East, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire through the integrated settlement.
• Reducing councillor numbers by around 5,000, saving over £250m over five years.

Ministry of Justice/ Attorney General's Office

• £4.7 bn for new prison places between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to support sentencing reform and improve justice system capacity.

Women and Equalities 

• By scrapping the two-child benefit cap in April 2026, the ‘rape clause’ under the cap will no longer be applicable.
• Commitment for the UK Research and Innovation fund to launch a new £4.5m round of the Women in Innovation Awards.