Chancellor Rachel Reeves has unveiled the long-anticipated budget.

It comes after a report from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which analyses policies decided on by the chancellor, was published early in error.

Here are the key points:

Tax thresholds will be frozen for an additional three years from 2028

The point at which people start paying higher rates of tax will be held. It can mean earners will be dragged into higher tax bands when they get a pay rise.

This will raise £8bn.

Taxes hiked on gambling

The gambling industry is going to be taxed more, to raise more than £1bn.

Remote gaming duty will rise to 40% from 21% while online betting tax will rise from 15% to 25%.

The bingo tax is being abolished from April.

New mileage-tax on electric cars

Electric car drivers will be subject to a 3p charge for every mile they drive.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles will be charged 1.5p per-mile.

This is expected to raise £1.4bn, according to the OBR report.

Change to capital gains tax for employee ownership trusts

Capital gains tax relief on business sales made to employee ownership trusts will be reduced from 100% to 50%.

This is expected to raise £900m.

Other tax hikes

The tax paid on dividends – payments to shareholders – as well as property and savings income will rise 2 percentage points, raising £2.1bn.

Two-child benefit cap scrapped

The government will scrap the two-child benefit cap from April 2026.

This currently limits the amount of benefits parents can claim for their third child or subsequent children who were born after 6 April 2017.

By scrapping the cap, the government hopes an estimated 450,000 children will be lifted out of poverty.

According to the OBR’s analysis of the chancellor’s budget this will cost the government £2.3bn.

Salary-sacrifice pension contributions above £2,000 to face national insurance

From April 2029, national insurance will be charged on salary-sacrificed pension contributions above an annual £2,000 threshold.

This will raise £4.7bn and will come into effect in 2029.

State pension increases

There’ll be an increase of £440 per year for the basic state pension and an increase of £575 per year for the new state pension.

Reforms for cash ISAs

Savers will only be able to put up to £12,000 into cash ISAs tax-free each year. This is reduced from £20,000 in the hopes that Britons will instead put their money into stocks and shares ISAs.

Over 65s can retain the full £20,000 allowance.

Fuel duty to be frozen until next September

The duty, or tax, paid on diesel and petrol has been frozen at 52.95p per litre.

This will cost the government £2.4bn next year and £900m each year after.

Mansion tax introduced on properties worth more than £2m

It means the most expensive properties in the country, worth more than £2m, will have to pay extra. This will be £2,500 for properties worth £2m to £2.5m and up to £7,500 for homes valued at £5m.

This will raise £400m, the OBR has confirmed.

Cut in energy bills

The average annual energy bill will be cut £150 from April by reducing levies.

The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, which is designed to tackle fuel poverty and help reduce carbon emissions, will be scrapped.

Luxury cars removed from the Motability scheme

This scheme, which provides subsidies for people with a disability to lease a vehicle, is part of PIP.

Freeze on student loan repayment rate

The student loan repayment threshold will be maintained for three years.

Training for apprentices under-25 free at small companies

A new Youth Guarantee will give £820m towards tyring to guarantee every young person a place in college, an apprenticeship or personalised job support.

After 18 months, 18-to-21 year-olds will be offered paid work instead of benefits.

Wider inheritance tax rules

A change to inheritance tax will allow the transfer of 100% relief allowance between spouses.

Uber and Bolt journeys to be taxed

Journeys taken on ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Bolt will be subject to tax in a measure being described as a taxi tax.

Rail fares frozen

Rail fares will be frozen for the first time in 30 years, with passengers not paying any more for season tickets, peak return and off-peak return tickets between major cities.

Business rate changes

Business rates will be reduced for 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties, which will be funded by an increase on premises worth more than £500,000.

The tax reduction will be paid for by an increase in taxes on properties worth £500,000 or more, like the warehouses used by online giants.

Stamp duty break for companies new to London Stock Exchange

A stamp duty holiday for companies newly listing on the London Stock Exchange will be in place for three years.

OBR forecast

Next year, economic growth is expected to be lower than the OBR thought in March. GDP will be 1.4% in 2026, down from a previously anticipated 1.9%.

It will be 1.5% for the rest of the decade.

According to the independent forecasters, prices are expected to rise faster than the OBR thought in March due to higher wages and food costs.

Inflation will be 3.5% this year and 2.5% next.

The amount of fiscal headroom the chancellor has doubled to £22bn in 2029-30. This means a £22bn financial cushion against price shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and soaring energy costs.

NHS technology and new neighbourhood health centres

The government will invest £300m in NHS technology and 250 new neighbourhood health centres with the aim to expand more services into communities.

Over 100 centres, including in Birmingham, Truro and Southall, are expected to be delivered by 2030.

Prescription costs frozen

The cost of an NHS prescription in England will be frozen at £9.90.

2.6% of GDP to be spent on defence

The government will spend 2.6% of GDP, a measure of everything produced in the economy, on defence.

National wage increases

From next April, the national living wage will rise by 4.1% to £12.71 an hour for eligible workers aged 21 and over.

The national minimum wage rate for 18 to 20-year-olds will increase by 8.5% to £10.85 an hour.

For 16 to 17-year-olds and those on apprenticeships, the national minimum wage will increase by 6% to £8 an hour.

Nations and local mayors

The government of Northern Ireland government will get an additional £317m, £505m for the Welsh government and £820m for the Scottish government.

“Flexible” funding worth £13bn has been pledged for seven regional mayors to invest in skills, business support and infrastructure.

Farmers have driven a convoy of tractors into Westminster on budget day over proposed inheritance tax changes.

They came despite Metropolitan Police restrictions banning agricultural machinery from the area.

One tractor was parked outside Parliament on Abingdon Street bearing the slogan “Fools vote Labour”, with more seen driving through Westminster on Wednesday morning.

Police stopped about 20 tractors in the area, including one with a farmer dressed as Father Christmas whose tractor was parked on Whitehall and carried a large spruce tree with a sign reading: “Farmer Christmas – the naughty list: Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Diane Abbott, Angela Rayner & the BBC.”

“Anyone breaching conditions by bringing vehicles, including tractors or agricultural vehicles, to today’s farmers protest will be asked by officers to leave,” police said in a statement.

“If they refuse to comply with the conditions, officers will have to make arrests for offences under the Public Order Act.”

Follow the latest on the budget: Chancellor vows to make ‘fair and necessary choices’

The force said its officers had spoken to several people to advise them of the conditions in the morning, adding that while the majority had listened and complied, “several arrests have been made”.

Tractors were banned from Whitehall because of the “serious disruption” they may cause to the local area, including businesses, emergency services and the public, according to an earlier statement on Tuesday.

The force added that people would still be able to demonstrate, but that they must remain in a specified area in Richmond Terrace, Whitehall.

The protest comes as anger continues over Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s plan to introduce a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural land and businesses worth more than £1m from April 2026.

The sector is already struggling with rising costs, tough market conditions and the worsening impact of climate change.

One of the organisers of the protest is Dan Willis, who owns Rookery Farms near Newbury in Berkshire.

He told Sky News correspondent Dan Whitehead that he was “absolutely devastated” when the group was told the demonstration couldn’t happen anymore, adding that it was “very hard to get the word out to everybody”.

“They were coming anyway, so unfortunately the Met have scored an own goal here. They created carnage,” Mr Willis said.

“We know it’s come from government. We know they don’t want to listen to us, whether it’s in the House or on the street, but we need a road. We need to exercise our right to protest. At the end of the day, that’s what’s happening today.”

Tractor ban ‘own goal’ leads to chaos

Dan Whitehead

West of England and Wales correspondent

@danwnews

The ban on tractors coming to Whitehall was announced the night before the budget – but despite the restriction, they still rolled into town on the M4 in the early hours.

If anything, the Met Police order to stop agricultural vehicles attending the protest due to concerns about “serious disruption” led to even more chaos.

Not allowed onto Whitehall, farmers ended up blocking Trafalgar Square and roads leading to Westminster, with several arrests made.

“The Met unfortunately have scored an own goal here and created carnage,” organiser Dan Willis told me.

As we spoke outside The Farmers Club near to Downing Street, a forestry shredder blasted out pulverised red cardboard dispatch boxes representing last year’s budget – the one which has angered farmers so much.

As Rachel Reeves passed our camera outside Downing Street, the boos from 500 or so farmers were deafening.

There may not have been any row back on the new inheritance tax by the Chancellor this year – but the 20% levy doesn’t kick in till April 2026.

Farmers will continue to push for it to be scrapped in the months to come.

He added: “These are all independent farmers who have come of their own volition.

“It’s such an emotive issue. You’re talking about death and losing family, a family asset, which is how we earn our living. And by the way, producing food, taxing the working people of this country, it’s impossible for us to go on.”

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Wednesday’s protest is the latest in a string of demonstrations by farmers against proposed changes to inheritance tax.

Farmers drove their tractors to Whitehall in December, with thousands of people protesting the decision they say will put their businesses and futures and the country’s food security at risk.

Multiple London councils have been hit by a cyber attack, with the potential for residents’ data to have been compromised.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and Westminster City Council (WCC) – which share a number of IT systems – noticed the incident on Monday and have informed the Information Commissioner’s Office – a step usually taken when data is compromised.

A statement from RBKC added that the councils are working with the “help of specialist cyber incident experts and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), with the focus on protecting systems and data, restoring systems, and maintaining critical services to the public”.

Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at Check Point, the company credited with inventing the firewall, said the situation had “all the signs of a serious intrusion”.

A spokesperson for the NCSC, part of the GCHQ intelligence agency and responsible for helping UK public bodies with cyber security, told Sky News: “We are aware of an incident affecting some local authority services in London and are working to understand any potential impact.”

According to the RBKC statement, it and WCC share IT services with Hammersmith and Fulham council, and there are reports services there have been impacted.

RBKC said that a “number of systems” have been impacted due to the incident, and resources have been diverted to monitor email inboxes and phone lines if people require help.

The council’s statement added: “We don’t have all the answers yet, as the management of this incident is still ongoing.”

It went on: “At this stage it is too early to say who did this, and why, but we are investigating to see if any data has been compromised – which is standard practice.

“Our IT teams worked through the night yesterday and a number of successful mitigations were put in place, and we remain vigilant should there be any further incidents or issues.”

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Mr Stewart, from Check Point, said: “What’s happening here has all the signs of a serious intrusion: multiple boroughs knocked offline, shared infrastructure exposed, and urgent internal warnings telling staff to avoid emails from partner councils.

“That’s classic behaviour when attackers get hold of credentials or move laterally through a shared environment. Once they’re inside one part of the network, they can hop through connected systems far faster than most councils can respond.”

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He continued: “The decision to shut down services so quickly isn’t an overreaction – it tells you they suspect this could escalate into encryption or data theft.

“Councils hold incredibly sensitive material: social-care files, identity documents, housing records, everything you’d need for targeted fraud or extortion. If attackers got near that, the fallout wouldn’t stay local.

“The NCSC and Met being pulled in at speed shows this is being treated as a high-risk event, not an IT outage. And it should be.

“Local authorities remain some of the easiest public-sector targets because they’re running huge workloads on tight budgets with uneven cyber maturity.”

Sky News has approached Westminster City Council and Hammersmith and Fulham Council for comment.

The Metropolitan Police has also been approached for comment.