All the winners and losers from Budget including drinkers, renters, pensioners

The winners and losers from the new Labour Party government's Budget have been revealed after Chancellor Rachel Reeves' speech in the Commons today. Ms Reeves has set out the government’s financial plans for tax, spending and policies.

Ms Reeves said: "I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto." She went on, adding:"So there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax and National Insurance thresholds beyond the decisions of the previous government."

Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor included lots of measures that could affect your personal finances. In Labour’s first budget for almost 15 years, Ms Reeves has unveiled tax rises and promises of investment in public services.

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The Budget marks a “very historic day” in the Commons, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has said, but he warned it may not offer people “a sense of hope, urgency and the promise of a fair deal”.

Winners

Workers

The freeze to income tax brackets will not be extended after 2028 and instead will rise each year by the rate of inflation from 2028-29. The personal allowance currently sits at £12,570 a year, and you only pay tax on the income you earn over this. You pay the 20% basic rate of Income Tax. There is a higher rate of 40% which is paid on earnings above £50,270, while anything above £125,140 is taxed at the 45% additional rate. Overall, this means more people will not be dragged into paying tax for the first time - or a higher rate of tax, if their wages rise.

Drivers

Motorists were expecting the Chancellor to raise fuel duty for the first time in 14 years but she kept the 5p cut in place. To encourage the take-up of electric vehicles. incentives for electric vehicles in Company Car Tax will be maintained from 2028 and the differential between fully electric and other vehicles will be increased in the first year rates of Vehicle Excise Duty from April 2025. These measures aim to be raising around £400 million a year.

Benefits claimants

An extra 60,000 carers will also benefit from the Budget after the Chancellor made a key change to Carer’s Allowance this week. Rachel Reeves raised the limit people can earn before they are no longer eligible for carers allowance from £151 to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage.

The increase is the largest uplift in the threshold since the benefit was introduced in 1976. Carer’s Allowance is a weekly payment which is paid to people who look after a severely disabled child or adult. It is worth £81.90 a week, or £327.60 a month.

Helen Walker, chief executive of Carers UK, said earlier this week: “We’re delighted that this is being addressed. It's been heartbreaking and frustrating to hear carers having to choose between paid work and Carer's Allowance simply because of a rise in the National Living Wage - something that is supposed to benefit low paid workers, not put them out of work.”

Beer drinkers

Pubgoers will pay less for a pint of beer after the Chancellor slashed alcohol duty rates by 1.7% Alcohol duty rates on non-draught products will increase in line with RPI from February next year. The latest hikes to duty on wine and spirits follow increases in August last year that were the largest in almost 50 years, adding 20% on more than 85% of all wines on the UK market and more than 10% to duty paid on full strength spirits.

Alcohol duty is paid by manufacturers when they make their products. Due to their stronger alcohol content, spirits and wines are generally taxed more heavily than ciders and beer.

Home buyers

Labour announced on Saturday that it will build up to 5,000 new affordable social homes. Ms Reeves said the Government would provide investment on housing, telling the Commons: “We will increase the Affordable Homes Programme to £3.1 billion, delivering thousands of new homes.

“We will provide £3 billion of support in guarantees to boost the supply of homes and support our smaller housebuilders. And we will provide investment to renovate sites across our country, including at Liverpool Central Docks where we will deliver 2,000 new homes, and funding to help Cambridge realise its full growth potential.”

Ms Reeves also acknowledged the need to increase the supply of affordable housing, saying: “Having heard representations from local authorities, social housing providers and Shelter, I can today confirm that the Government will reduce Right to Buy Discounts and local authorities will be able to retain the full receipts from any sales of social housing so that we can reinvest back into the housing stock and into new supply.

“By doing this we will give more people a safe, secure and affordable place to live. We will provide stability to social housing providers, with a social housing rent settlement of CPI plus 1% for the next five years and we will deliver on our manifesto commitment to hire hundreds of new planning officers to get Britain building again.

“We will also make progress on our commitment to accelerate the remediation of homes following the findings of the Grenfell Inquiry, with £1 billion of investment to remove dangerous cladding next year.”

Pensioners

Rachel Reeves confirmed that the full new state pension will rise in April from £221.20 a week to £230.25 - providing pensioners with up to £473 extra a year. Meanwhile, the full basic state pension will increase from £169.50 to £176.45 per week - equivalent to an extra £361.40 annually.

Losers

Smokers

The price of cigarettes is rising this evening after Reeves confirmed a hike in Tobacco Duty today with a 10% increase on hand-rolled tobacco. She also confirmed that the government will renew the tobacco duty escalator at Retail Price Index (RPI) plus 2% for the remainder of parliament. According to the smoker's lobby group Forest, the illustrative tax increase is 54p per 20 cigarettes and £2.33 for 30g of hand rolling tobacco. The new price for a 20 pack of cigarettes will rise from £15.88 to £16.42 this evening based on Office of National Statistics (ONS) data.

Vaping was also targeted in Labour's budget. The Chancellor has also announced a “flat rate duty” on vaping liquid from October 2026, which will add £2.20 per 10ml of vaping liquid and will add an equivalent one-off increase in tobacco duty to maintain the incentive for smokers to give up smoking. The new vaping levy follows a previous pledge by the Conservative government to do so, with the latest increases coming into effect from April 2026. It will introduce a toll of £1-3 per 10ml vape liquid, increasing depending on nicotine levels.

Other drinkers

Although draught duty is being cut, the cost of wine and spirits will increase. The Chancellor added: "I can confirm that alcohol duty rates on non-draught products will increase in line with RPI from February next year.”

Stephen Russell, co-founder of Kent-based Copper Rivet Distillery and UK Spirits Alliance spokesman said it was a “kick in the teeth to distillers, landlords and working people who will feel this in their pockets".

He explained: "Pubs are more than pints - a third of all alcoholic drinks sold across hospitality are spirits."

Renters

Mortgage rates are set to rise as Ms Reeves goes on a borrowing spree of more than £32 billion over five years, according to the official forecaster. The Office for Budget Responsibility said they would only go up slightly as interest rates remain higher than they would otherwise have been if it had not been for the additional borrowing.

Renters often end up paying more for their home if their landlord’s mortgage goes up, and sometimes less if it goes down.

Bus users

Sir Keir Starmer confirmed the £2 cap on bus fares would end, but promised a new £3 limit instead. The Prime Minister said: “On the £2 bus fare, first thing to say is the Tories only funded that until the end of 2024 and therefore that is the end of the funding in relation to a £2 capped fare.

“I do know how much this matters, particularly in rural communities where there’s heavy reliance on buses.

“And that’s why I’m able to say to you this morning that in the Budget we will announce there will be a £3 cap on bus fares to the end of 2025 because I know how important it is.”

Landlords

Second-home buyers will face a stamp duty land tax surcharge rise of two percentage points – to 5% – starting from Thursday. Ms Reeves said: “In our manifesto, we committed to reforming stamp duty land tax to raise revenue while supporting those buying their first home.

“This will support over 130,000 additional transactions from people buying their first home, or moving home, over the next five years.”

Businesses

Employers' national insurance contributions will rise by 1.2 percentage points to 15% in April 2025 up from 13.8% now, and the threshold for paying them will fall from £9,100 per year to £5,000.