Budget winners and losers: pensioners and households gain as banks and betting shops hit

How the Burnham government’s first attempt to ease cost of living pressure pans out for key stakeholders Budget 2026: key points at a glance

Every budget has its winners and losers, and John Healey’s first as chancellor was no exception. While some gained from tax breaks and rule tweaks, others will either pay more, or had their hopes of reforms dashed. Here are some of those with reason to cheer, or sigh:

Everyone in a band A-D property: A £100 payment to help towards this winter’s energy costs. The payment is guaranteed in England from January. Other parts of the UK have been given funding to do the same.

Pensioners: The state pension will go up to £13,036 next April, and pensioners will get a new matching personal allowance at the same time. The allowance will lift all income they receive to that level out of tax.

Teenage tech bros – and other young entrepreneurs, in England: They will gain from a new allowance, which will give them support towards their living costs in the first year of their business.

Independent cider makers, and brewers: More generous tax reliefs for small alcohol producers will help 2,000 businesses, and a new “guest beer” rule will mean that tied pubs in England and Wales must offer their drinks.

EV drivers – but only those who use lower-powered public chargers: The government will give £100m in subsidies for on-street charging, saving people without home charging about £150 a year.

First-time buyers with small savings: The Your First Home scheme will help those with a deposit of as little as 2.5% to buy a newbuild home. It will be open to households earning up to £140,000 in London, and £110,000 everywhere else in England.

Cash Isa fans: Savers under 65 will not have their cash Isa allowance cut next April after Healey reversed an announcement made in last year’s budget. They will, however, be encouraged to try their hand at investing with a new, yet to be announced, incentive for those buying stocks and shares for the first time.

Self-employed fathers: Two weeks of paternity pay, currently worth up to £194 a week, will be available from April 2029 to those who work for themselves.

Paddington Bear: The small bear from Peru is a well-known consumer of marmalade and could see the cost of his favourite spread fall by 20% as a result of the removal of tariffs from more than a 100 products, which also included gherkins and garlic.

Banks: A temporary increase in the bank corporation tax surcharge, from 3% to 6% for 15 months, will mean they pay a combined £1.5bn extra to the Treasury over the period. But it had been suggested that the levy would be raised to 8% and bank shares rose after the budget, so maybe they are actually winners.

Betting shops: Tax on slot machines with stakes of £1 or more will increase from 20% to 25% from April 2027. Shares in gambling companies also rose, as investors had feared the hike may be bigger.

Students: They may have hoped for a change in the repayment thresholds to ease the pain felt by those on plan 2 loans, but there was no movement. Instead the thresholds are set to be frozen from next April.

Savers who have money outside Isas: The tax on interest was set to go up next April and Healey added another two percentage points to the rates that had already been announced. Once a basic-rate saver has used up their tax-free allowance on interest they will pay 24% on returns, while a higher rate taxpayer will pay 44% and an additional rate payer 49%.

Buy-to-let landlords: Taxes on property income will also go up by more than had been expected, and to the rates outlined for savers. For this, however, there are different rates in Scotland.

Private renters: The increase in taxes on landlords could lead to a steady rise in rents, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. It says, together with other measures introduced in recent years, the extra cost means landlords may leave the market and potential new investors stay out.

Poor families in bands E and above: The £100 energy rebate is being distributed using council tax bands, but this means 1.4 million of the poorest families miss out, according to the Resolution Foundation.

People in urban communities hoping to access nature: The budget included exemptions for biodiversity net gain (BNG) on brownfield sites. BNG requires developers to build in nature gains when developing plots but Healey is removing this requirement for plots up to 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) in England.