Autumn Budget 2026: Stability was promised but instead we got complex selective surgery

Businesses, investors and families were already trying to navigate one of the most significant pipelines of tax reform in recent memory. The priority for this Autumn Budget should have been certainty.

On the surface, John Healey’s first Autumn Budget was restrained, but I think this is a trailer to something much bigger.

Like his predecessor Rachel Reeves, Healey is limited by the ‘tax triple lock’ in what he can do. He had little choice but to continue the recent approach of targeting specific groups of taxpayers – this time banks, landlords and savers.

The most significant revenue-raising measure was the further increase in tax rates on savings and property income, with those rates rising to 24%, 44% and 49% from April 2027. When combining mortgage interest relief, a landlord who is an additional rate taxpayer will face an effective rate of income tax of over 50%. For many landlords, this could prove to be the ‘final nail in the coffin.’

Apparently, this was a Budget for entrepreneurs and innovation, but I am not so sure.

Business Asset Disposal Relief survives, but the lifetime limit will be cut from £1 million to £500,000 from April 2027 – meaning the maximum tax saving falls to just £30,000, compared with as much as £1.8 million when Entrepreneurs’ Relief was at its most generous.

Alongside this, the Chancellor announced a new Founders’ Relief, offering a 10% capital gains tax rate on qualifying gains of up to £10 million.

At first glance, Founders’ Relief sounds exciting and takes me back to the ‘glory days’ of entrepreneurs’ relief.

A £1.4 million carrot to incentivise a founder to grow and scale a business – Founders’ Relief should be gamechanger, but it isn’t. The relief is very narrowly targeted, and many successful owner-managed businesses are unlikely to qualify.

The technical consultation proposes several conditions, including a requirement for founders to have held at least a 25% stake when the business commenced trading, minimum turnover and employee thresholds, and tests linked to growth and innovation.

Entrepreneurs will be left short again, despite the fanfare.

Ultimately, this was not the dramatic, tax-raising Budget that many had feared. Threats of significant increases to capital gains tax were dispelled in the week before and most felt comfortable that an exit tax or wealth tax were firmly off the table.

This Budget was relatively stable compared to the chaos of the previous two but there was little to get excited about, unless you like pickled gherkins.

This Budget will be quickly forgotten, and that’s not a bad thing. The Chancellor avoided the temptation of major tax intervention and bought himself some time. But for a Government facing significant fiscal pressures, the bigger questions have not gone away. It increasingly feels the next Budget may be one after a General Election.