The centrepiece of the Budget is a £1bn investment in social and affordable housing, which the Treasury says takes total funding for the government's 10-year homes programme past £40bn. The chancellor is expected to grant mayors and regional leaders greater control over investment decisions, backed by an initial £285m in transitional seed funding to reduce reliance on Whitehall bidding pots. The government also plans to work with mayors on a new £1.5bn borrowing facility from 2028, which would allow them to access capital for new homes, high streets, or transport links. "Mayors and local leaders know what their communities need to grow," Mr Healey said, arguing they should have the "right to decide their own future." Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the plan was about shifting power to those "who know their communities best," calling time on local leaders going "cap in hand to Westminster."
The Budget is also expected to include new support for small breweries, with the Treasury saying the chancellor wants "to turn the tide for our pint producers." Meanwhile, The Sunday Times reported that Mr Healey is expected to unveil billions in new defence spending, though specific funding details will be outlined at next year's spending review.
The defence component has proven politically tense. Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith has called for Mr Healey to resign if the Budget does not clearly set out how the UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030. This is a target Mr Healey himself called for when he was defence secretary, a role from which he resigned in June over the previous government's defence investment plan, which he said fell "well short" of what was needed. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting countered that the Conservatives were to blame for failing to invest in the military while in office, saying the government is "determined to give our armed forces the investment needed to keep us safe."
Mr Healey's Budget preparations suffered a blow when the Treasury's entrepreneurship adviser, Alex Depledge, announced she was resigning as of Thursday, the day after the Budget. She told The Sunday Times that start-ups were being treated as a "sideshow" and should not be pushed to the "margins of economic policy." "Keeping scale-ups on the fringes underestimates the contribution of our greatest companies, and we need to support and develop them on British shores at all costs," she said.
Regional mayors broadly welcomed the devolution announcements. Claire Ward, chairwoman of the UK Mayors Network, said having the right powers and resources would help turn "ambitious plans into reality." London Mayor Lord Sadiq Khan said the greater ability to invest could unlock infrastructure projects including the West London Orbital route and extensions of the Bakerloo line and Docklands Light Railway.