New UK taxes: what has been passed and what is still planned

Chancellor John Healey delivered the Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026. He left the headline rates alone — income tax, National Insurance and VAT all stayed where they were. The money is being raised elsewhere: from tax on rental and savings income, from a new council tax surcharge on expensive homes, and from a mileage charge on electric cars. Here is what is already fixed and what is still coming.

Changing from April 2027

The biggest change hits landlords and savers. From 6 April 2027 the tax rates on property income and savings income go up: the basic rate to 24%, the higher rate to 44% and the additional rate to 49%. This is the second rise in a row — Budget 2025 had already added two percentage points from the same date, and Budget 2026 added two more. The government says 84% of income tax payers will be unaffected, because most people have no income of this kind.

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Pay at the bottom of the scale goes up. From 1 April 2027 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over rises by 3.9% to £13.21 an hour. The National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20 year olds rises by the same 3.9% to £11.27 an hour.

Alcohol gets more expensive from 1 February 2027, when duty rates rise by 4.55% in line with RPI inflation. Small Producer Relief becomes more generous at the same time.

Business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure are frozen for two years, and pubs, music venues and social clubs get an extra 20% reduction. The Small Business Rate Relief threshold rises.

Starting this winter

In January 2027 up to 20 million households in England will receive a one-off £100 Household Energy Payment, delivered through the council tax system to homes in bands A to D. The programme costs £2.6 billion, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their share of the funding. Banks pay for it: the Bank Corporation Tax Surcharge rises temporarily from 3% to 6%, from 1 January 2027 until 31 March 2028.

The reduced rate of VAT on domestic electricity has been extended by another three months, to July 2027. The Treasury estimates this will take around £50 off the annual Ofgem price cap in April 2027.

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The fuel duty freeze and the 5p a litre cut were both extended to 1 July 2027, and the HGV road tax holiday runs to the same date.

Planned for 2028 and later

From April 2028 England gets the High Value Council Tax Surcharge, an annual charge on owners of residential property worth £2 million or more. The Valuation Office will run a targeted valuation exercise, and local authorities will collect the charge alongside ordinary council tax. The government has promised a deferral scheme for people who would struggle to pay, a set of discounts and exemptions, and a 100% premium on homes left empty for 12 months or more. The measure is expected to raise around £400 million a year from 2028-29.

From 1 April 2028 Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) starts: a mileage charge on cars of 3 pence per mile for battery-electric and hydrogen vehicles and 1.5 pence per mile for plug-in hybrids. The rate will be uprated in line with CPI inflation from 2029-30.

From April 2029 salary sacrifice is capped: only the first £2,000 a year an employee puts into a pension through a salary sacrifice arrangement will be exempt from National Insurance contributions. That decision was taken at Budget 2025.

What did not change

The cash ISA limit stays at £20,000 — the cut that had been discussed was reversed. The VAT rate was untouched. And the tax-free mileage rate for people using their own vehicle for work, 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles, has been made permanent.

Check your own position against the official documents: every figure above comes from Treasury and HMRC Budget papers, linked below.