2026 Budget: Breathing Space Today and Fresh Hope for the Future

For families and businesses across Bristol South, Labour’s Budget offers breathing space today and fresh hope for the future. The Chancellor, John Healey, has set out immediate help with energy bills, fuel costs and business rates, alongside major investment in housing, growth and national security.

Families will benefit from a £100 Household Energy Payment if they live in a council tax band A-D household – representing the overwhelming majority of households in Bristol South. Everyone will see an extension of 0% VAT on electricity until June 2027, and councils will be able to provide additional support for households in greatest need with a £100 million boost nationally.

Many people in Bristol South are reliant on a car to work and to look after their loved ones, and motorists will benefit from the 5p fuel duty cut being extended until July 2027.

Across the country, a £1 billion business rates package will take around 70,000 additional retail, hospitality and leisure firms out of business rates altogether.

Alongside immediate support, the Budget begins the longer-term work of putting Britain on a stronger course.

More than £20 billion of additional capital for the National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank will help drive investment across our country. When I met with start-up companies at the Bottle Yard Studios in Hengrove earlier this year, they emphasised to me the importance of being able to access funding to get good businesses off the ground.

The Your First Home scheme will support first-time buyers in Bristol South who desperately want the security of home ownership and put down roots but who are struggling to put together a deposit due of the high cost of housing in our city.

Local areas, led by mayors like Helen Godwin our Labour Mayor of the West of England, will be given greater power over their economic futures, backed by £285 million for Good Growth Funds, helping to drive good growth in every postcode. I will be meeting the Mayor next month to discuss these opportunities further.

The Budget also backs Britain's national security, with nearly £300 billion for defence over the next four years – a record increase since the Cold War – and full funding for the £15 billion Defence Investment Plan. I was pleased to see an announcement alongside the Budget of additional investment by Rolls Royce in Bristol, and I will be working to ensure that people in Bristol South have the improved transport links to more easily access these and similar opportunities.  

These choices are underpinned by fiscal discipline, raising revenue from those who can afford to contribute more and reducing our national debt over time. This will create the foundations for the Government's upcoming 10-Year Plan and for next year’s Spending Review.

I will be discussing some specific measures in the Budget in more detail in future blogs.