What you need to know about Your First Home scheme for first-time buyers
Chancellor fleshes out details of scheme unveiled last month to help 70,000 households on to the property ladder
Thursday, 29 October 2026
Independent coverage of global markets, trade and finance
Chancellor fleshes out details of scheme unveiled last month to help 70,000 households on to the property ladder
Payments to 20m homes part of package to cut energy bills and ease cost of living crisis, paid for by bank windfall tax
Income tax thresholds are set to remain frozen after John Healey’s first budget as chancellor.
The chancellor talked of charting a new course for Britain, but the impact of Iran war has limited his options.
The Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions affect everything from mortgages to car loans
OBR cautions about Middle East war dragging down growth and triggering a fresh cost of living crisis
The chancellor begins his speech by calling it a Budget for the "working people of Britain, for British businesses big and small."
Martin Lewis said that, when he met John Healey this morning, the chancellor said that, having removed standing charges from gas bills, he would also like to get rid of them from electricity bills. Lewis said:
Jonathan Reynolds has written to Gordon Brothers, which bought retailer for £1 last summer, to ‘establish the facts’
Up Next. Watch: What happens now after close vote in Israeli election? Video, 00:00:44Watch: What happens now after close vote in Israeli election?
Helen Miller, director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, speaks to the Today programme about challenges in the budget.
Up Next. Watch: What happens now after close vote in Israeli election? Video, 00:00:44Watch: What happens now after close vote in Israeli election?
John Healey starts by saying that his budget is “delivered at a time when global uncertainties and pressures are swirling worldwide and hitting people here at home”.
Several Mississippi homes have been purchased near datacenters and one resident said realtor outlined target to buy more than 400
Any chancellor’s first budget is a big moment. But Rachel Reeves’s October 2024 event – the first from a Labour-run Treasury in almost 25 years – was particularly so, as she announced a big expansion in day-to-day spend…
For small businesses hit by soaring fuel prices, and first-time buyers struggling to get on the housing ladder, there is a lot riding on it.
Up Next. What do we know about Chancellor John Healey? Video, 00:01:00What do we know about Chancellor John Healey?
Oil sits at the centre of the call: the RBNZ expects fuel to lift inflation to 4.4% in the December quarter, but the majority chose to look through the direct effects for now, betting that weak demand will limit pass-th…
Stormont ministers will find out later how much extra money they will have to spend as a result of the Westminster Budget.
The public accounts committee has said the risk to billpayers is ‘extraordinary’
From tackling the youth jobs crisis to repairing Brexit’s economic damage, John Healey has his work cut out for him
Government-backed Warm Home Loans scheme to help households cut energy bills by hundreds of pounds
Elon Musk has released an AI-generated rival to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey after pledging to make a version “true to the art of Homer”.