Healey sets 28 October budget, vows to shift power from Westminster

John Healey will deliver his first Budget on 28 October 2026, setting up the government's first major fiscal test under Andy Burnham's premiership. Healey said the statement would "move money and power out of Westminster, and into every postcode around Britain."

The Budget is the government's main fiscal statement, where major tax and spending decisions are set out for the year ahead. That makes the autumn announcement the moment when households, councils and regional leaders will look for proof that the government's language on rebalancing the country is matched by hard choices on spending and control.

The pledge lands alongside a wider devolution push, including a separate proposal to give mayors a share of income tax. If that agenda is serious, the Budget will need to show more than symbolic nods to the regions: it will have to spell out how money, responsibility and decision-making move beyond Westminster and into local hands.

Parliament will still decide how far those promises go. UK Parliament says the Budget is followed by scrutiny in the Commons, while the House of Commons Library notes that the Chancellor's annual statement is followed by the Finance Bill, where the tax and spending measures are turned into law. Any shift in power to the regions will therefore pass through the same central institutions that have long controlled the purse strings.

The timing gives the government a narrow window to turn its rhetoric into policy before scrutiny begins. For people facing pressure from bills and stretched public services, the relevant question is whether the 28 October Budget will bring visible changes in local funding and fiscal authority, or whether devolution will again be framed as a promise while Westminster keeps the decisive levers.