How the Budget affects you

Families facing cost-of-living pressures are being offered some help, or "breathing space" as Chancellor John Healey is calling it.

The help comes as prices are rising faster than expected with annual energy bills in particular likely to increase by around £300 or more in January.

Here's how the key announcements in the Budget affect you and your money.

If you are living in a home in council tax bands A to D in England, you will receive a one-off £100 "Household Energy Payment" from January, funded by extra tax on banks.

It will be paid directly into your bank account.

You can find your council tax band by looking on your annual bill, or by looking on the government's website - although that was struggling to cope with traffic after the announcement.

Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive the equivalent funding, and they will decide whether to introduce the same payment.

This is designed to help with soaring energy bills. Tariffs linked to regulator Ofgem's price cap, are forecast to soar by hundreds of pounds a year, to an annual bill of £2,000 or more in January.

Gas standing charges will be scrapped in England, Scotland and Wales, during 2027 "or as soon as possible after", the chancellor said.

These fixed daily fees will be shifted onto the price of each unit of energy.

The Treasury calculates that 60% of households will gain an average of £45 a year, with lower users gaining the most - but not until after the projected big rise in bills in January.

Higher users - in the biggest houses but also large, low-income families - will pay more than they currently do.

The government wants to extend reforms to electricity standing charges later.

Motor fuel prices have risen sharply owing to the continued impact of the Iran war on drivers, with diesel having recently hit new records when it moved above £2 per litre.

The cost of filling a typical family car with diesel has gone up by around £30 since late February. A tankful of petrol costs about £23 more.

The chancellor has scrapped his predecessor's plans to reduce the annual amount people can save tax-free in cash in Individual Savings Accounts (Isas).

Rachel Reeves had wanted the policy to encourage personal investment in stocks and shares.

It meant, from April 2027, if you're under 65, you would only be able to save £12,000 a year in cash in an Isa, rather than £20,000.

But that plan has now been ditched.

Instead, the government plans to create a new "Starter Isa" for first-time investors.

The government had already committed to not taxing people who only get an income from the state pension.

The chancellor said this would be the case until at least 2030, as there will be a new Pension Tax Allowance, so pensioners with an income up to the value of the full new state pension will not pay income tax.

Separately, he confirmed the Your First Home equity scheme to allow first-time buyers in England to buy a new-build home with a deposit of 2.5%. It would provide them with a loan worth 20% of their property's value to help pay for the purchase.