What the Budget Means for Charities

This page explains what the UK Budget means for charities, community interest companies and community groups. It is written to be updated after each Budget, rather than left as a news story that goes quiet a week later. The latest Budget covered here is the Autumn Budget delivered on Wednesday 28 October 2026 by the Chancellor, John Healey. It was his first Budget.

The figures and quotes below come from the speech as delivered, from the HM Treasury announcement of the date, and from the sector briefings linked in the sources. We have not added measures that were not in those sources. Where a department still has to publish who can apply, the page says so.

What a Budget can change for grant funding

A Budget is a statement about tax, spending and borrowing. It is not a grants database. Some lines in a speech become a fund that charities can apply to. Many do not. They change the cost of running a service, the money a council has, or the demand on a warm space or an advice line. Those effects still matter when you write a bid, because funders ask what the work costs and why it is needed now.

Three things are worth separating each year:

• A new fund you can apply to, with an owner, an amount and a route to apply.
• A change in tax, wages or bills that alters the cost of work you already do.
• A promise that more money will be decided locally, which does not give you an application form today.

The 28 October 2026 speech had all three, and it did not have a fourth thing many charities had asked for: a new general grant scheme, or a commitment to full cost recovery and Gift Aid. Those asks are set out further down. They were not answered in the speech.

Most grant funders, from the National Lottery Community Fund to a local community foundation, set their own budgets. The Budget does not move their deadlines. If you have a round open now, apply to it. Waiting for a Budget document to turn into a grant scheme can mean missing a fund that was already there. Our guide to charity grants and the live list of grants for charities are the practical next step.

Autumn Budget 2026: what the speech said

These are the measures from the speech most likely to matter to charities, CICs, social enterprises and community groups. The quotes are the Chancellor's own words, from the speech as delivered. Most of the detail, including dates and who can apply, sits in the Budget documents and was still to follow from departments when we checked. Nothing in the list below was, on its own, a grant you could apply for on the day of the speech.

HM Treasury confirmed the Budget date on 31 July 2026. The Office for Budget Responsibility published its economic and fiscal forecast on the same day as the speech. Start with the speech, then the Budget documents, if you need a figure for a board paper. Do not rely on a commentary that adds numbers the speech did not give.

Energy bills, premises and wages

The energy measures are household measures. The VAT cut on household electricity runs through the winter and spring to July, and the £100 payment goes to households in council tax bands A to D. A charity that pays a commercial energy bill does not automatically receive either. The practical effect the speech points to is demand. If you run a warm space, a food project or a money advice line, households getting that help may still need you, and some of the pressure may ease. Say which of those you actually see. Do not claim the £100 as income in a project budget.

Premises are different for different structures. The higher Small Business Rate Relief threshold, from £12,000 to £18,000 of rateable value, is for retail, hospitality and leisure. That helps a CIC or social enterprise running a shop or a café. A registered charity that already receives mandatory charitable rate relief was not given a new relief in the speech. If you are not sure which relief you get, ask the council before you put a rates saving into a bid. Our CIC grants guide is the place to start if the organisation is a community interest company rather than a charity, and the live list is grants for CICs.

The 3.9% rise in the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage is a cost, not a grant. Every charity with paid staff should put the higher rate into the next budget it sends a funder. If a current grant or contract was priced at the old rate, the gap is yours unless the funder agrees a variation. That is the same point as full cost recovery, below: a grant that pays last year's wage does not pay this year's wage.

The Carer's Allowance change, "getting rid of the cliff edge on earnings", was announced without the worked example in the speech. Carers' charities will want the departmental detail before they rewrite guidance for the people they support. Until that detail is published, do not put a new earnings figure into an application.

Money that will be decided locally

Several of the largest numbers in the speech are not funds a small charity can apply to on GOV.UK. They are money for mayors, loans for mayoral authorities, local retention of business rates, and a visitor levy power from 2028. The speech also promised Good Growth Funds for mayors and incubator capital for areas without mayors.

The useful reading of that, for a community group, is about where decisions will sit. Over time, more local money should mean more decisions made locally. The practical step is to know your combined authority or council, and to be in the conversations before a local pot is designed. It is not to wait for a national form that the speech did not announce.

Housing is similar. An additional £1.5 billion for the Social and Affordable Housing Programme is money for homes. Charities that support tenants, or that deliver homelessness contracts, may see it through a council or a housing association, not through a new trust application. If your work depends on those contracts, ask the commissioner what the extra capital changes. Do not describe it in a bid as a grant you have been awarded.

The £100 million Local Apprenticeship Service was described as a service to match young people with local firms. Treat it as a named programme whose rules are still to be published, not as income.

For the wider pattern of long term local money, our guide to Pride in Place funding explains a different government programme, where places were selected and a local board decides the projects. It is not part of this Budget speech. It is a useful comparison when someone asks whether a large local fund has an application form.

What the sector asked for

More than 80 organisations, working together as the Civil Society Group, sent a joint submission to the Treasury before the Budget. The Charity Finance Group's summary lists the main asks:

• government grants, contracts and procurement that fund the true cost of delivering services, including full cost recovery, multi year funding and yearly increases for inflation
• modernising Gift Aid and protecting tax reliefs on donations and gifts in wills
• support for place based giving schemes and local voluntary sector support organisations
• a long term national strategy for community ownership, with more funding for community buildings and spaces

The speech did not mention full cost recovery, Gift Aid or a community ownership strategy.

In Scotland, SCVO made a similar call. One specific ask is that public funders cover the higher mileage rate for volunteer drivers. The tax free rate went up to 55p a mile, but many grants and contracts for 2026/27 were agreed at the old rate of 45p. That is from the SCVO briefing, not from the Chancellor's speech. The speech raised the higher mileage rate from 25p to 35p and made the earlier increase to the standard rate permanent. It did not mention volunteer drivers. Wait for the detail before you change an expenses policy, and do not assume a funder will uprate a grant that was signed at 45p.

We talked through these asks in The Funding Week. The episode is the briefing from before the speech. This page is the record of what the speech then said.

Full cost recovery

Full cost recovery means a grant or contract pays for the whole cost of the work. That covers a fair share of rent, insurance, management and IT, as well as the project worker. Many charities delivering public services say their contracts do not do this, so they make up the gap from reserves or donations.

If a future Budget commits to full cost recovery in government funding, it would mostly affect charities with public contracts or grants from government departments. Small groups funded by trusts and the Lottery would feel it less directly. Some independent funders already pay a share of overheads. Our guide to core costs sets out how unrestricted and core funding differs from a project grant, and the grant budget template shows how to cost overheads in a bid. The project sustainability guide covers what you tell a funder about the year after their grant ends.

The 28 October 2026 speech did not make that commitment. The wage rise and the mileage rate still change the true cost. Put the new wage rate in the budget. Leave the mileage policy alone until the volunteer driver detail is published. That is a narrower action than a new funding model, and it is the one the speech supports.

Grant rounds the Budget did not close

Because funders set their own budgets, the speech is not a reason to stop applying. These examples were open around the Budget and are the kind of fund the speech did not rewrite. Check the grant page before you rely on a detail, because rounds close on the funder's timetable, not on Budget day.

Awards for All England gives £300 to £20,000 for projects of up to two years, with decisions in about 16 weeks.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation funds core costs, including salaries and overheads, and offers unrestricted funding. Grants start at £30,000 and most last three to five years. It does not fund organisations with a turnover under £100,000.

The Leeds Building Society Foundation gives small grants of up to £2,500 for core, project or capital costs to housing and homelessness charities with a turnover under £500,000. The window that was open at the Budget closed on 11 November 2026, so use the grant page to see whether a later window is open rather than the date in the original news post.

Browse what is open now by organisation:

• Charities
• CICs and social enterprises
• Community groups
• Village halls
• Community foundation grants, which are often the local route when a national scheme is not the right fit
• Charity grants in Scotland and charity grants in Wales

Running a business rather than a charity? See what the Budget means for small businesses. Farming organisations should read what the Budget means for farmers. Those posts stay as the notes for those audiences. This page is the one we will update for charities and community groups.

Lloyds Bank Foundation is one of the funders that already looks at core costs for some charities. The Lloyds Bank Foundation guide is separate from the Budget, and it is a better place to learn that funder's rules than a Budget speech is.

How this page is updated

After each Budget we replace the year's measures on this page. The sections on how a Budget differs from a grant scheme, and on full cost recovery, stay, because they do not depend on one speech. The dated table is labelled with the Budget it comes from, so an old figure is not left looking current.

When you use a figure from this page in a board paper or a bid, cite the speech or the sector briefing, and check the grant page for anything you plan to apply to. We check deadlines on the funder's own site before we publish a grant. Funders change dates, so confirm on their site before you apply.