UK Budget 2026: mayors get business rates share and a £100 household energy payment comes
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readThe UK Treasury's regional fact sheet for Budget 2026, published on 28 October, sets out how the government plans to shift money and powers from Whitehall to English regions and local authorities.
The central measure is business rates. The fact sheet says they will become a fully locally retained tax by the end of the decade, with mayors receiving 20% from April 2027 and local authorities' share rising to at least 70% in coming years. A Fiscal Devolution Roadmap adds income tax assignment for all mayors from 2028 and plans to give every Strategic Authority the power to introduce an overnight visitor levy. A first wave of nine Mayoral Strategic Authority Business Rates Retention Zones is planned, subject to business-case approval and legislation, and the government says over 90% of England's population will be covered by devolution, including the whole of the North for the first time.
Spending lines include an extra £1.5 billion for 10,000 homes, prioritising social rent and council homes, bringing the Social and Affordable Homes Programme above £40 billion over ten years; £125 million for a Derelict Buildings Fund across 60 local authorities; and £80 million for a Local Renewal Fund. For energy bills, households in council tax bands A to D in England get a £100 Household Energy Payment from January 2027 — up to 20 million households, the fact sheet says — plus £100 million for councils to help those most affected.
What it means
The fiscal substance here is a slow transfer of tax bases rather than new money: business rates and a share of income tax move to local and regional government over several years. The £100 payment is the near-term cash measure and is targeted by council tax band, not income. Headline fiscal figures — headroom, borrowing and the forecast — are in the Budget documents and the OBR's outlook, not in this fact sheet.