Antonia Jennings, CEO at Centre for London, provides our response to Autumn Budget 2026 and Fiscal Devolution Roadmap

“This was a budget for the short term, as we hold our breath for the ten-year plan and Spending Review”

“London’s success and the UK’s success are one and the same. After years of warning that the capital’s social and economic challenges have been ignored, it’s encouraging to hear the Chancellor recognise London’s role as a strategic national asset, a global competitor and a driver of growth for the whole country.

There’s plenty to welcome in the short term. Funding for new apprenticeship placements, raising the threshold at which high street businesses pay business rates, and reforming the skilled workers visa, are all sensible measures. They are practical changes that will ease some of the pressures facing London’s economy, businesses and residents.”

But there are two major omissions: a lack of detail on the ambition for London within the fiscal devolution roadmap, and the continued absence of any serious discussion about property tax reform”

Fiscal Devolution

“The government’s fiscal devolution roadmap was billed as a major step forward. Instead, it leaves many of the most important questions unanswered, particularly around how much income tax mayors will actually retain.

At Centre for London, we called for a dedicated London chapter recognising the capital’s unique position in the UK. The roadmap itself acknowledged that ‘given its unique governance structures, services and funding arrangements, a bespoke
approach may be needed for Greater London’. But while London’s distinctiveness is recognised, it hints at the possibility that the capital will receive a watered-down set of fiscal powers.

While retaining the Elizabeth line Business Rates Supplement is welcome, London cannot afford to become the exception to devolution. As other mayoral authorities gain greater control over locally generated revenues, the capital risks being recognised as the UK’s economic engine while missing out on some of the most significant growth-focused reforms.

Fiscal devolution must be about more than rhetoric. It must give London’s regional and local government the tools to invest, plan and deliver for the long term for Londoners and the whole country.”

Housing and Property Tax 

“When it came to housing, the government’s diagnosis was stronger than its prescription.

In his closing remarks, he highlighted three defining features of Britain’s housing crisis: the loss of social housing, rising temporary accommodation and increasingly unaffordable rents. London sits at the centre of all three.

Around 325,000 of those lost social homes were in London, despite housing need continuing to grow. More than half of England’s children living in temporary accommodation are in the capital. And the average private renter in London spends close to half their income on housing costs.

These figures are a reminder that while housing pressures exist across the country, they are most acute in London.

The Chancellor’s assessment of the problem was absolutely right. The response, however, did not go far enough.

Additional investment in the Social and Affordable Homes Programme is welcome and should be directed towards the capital’s housing pressures, as are measures to lower borrowing costs for councils. But these are incremental changes to a system that requires more fundamental reform.

Conspicuously absent was any conversation about property taxation.

Britain’s property tax system distorts the housing market, disincentivises moving, and fails to tax housing wealth fairly. It makes it harder for people to move into homes that better suit their needs and contributes to the inefficient use of housing stock.

Centre for London has proposed a progressive, partially devolved Proportional Property Tax. Under our model, households living in homes worth less than £800,000 would pay broadly the same as they do today, while owners of higher-value homes would contribute more. Combined with the abolition of Stamp Duty, it would make moving home easier, improve the use of existing housing stock and create a fairer approach to taxing property wealth. Crucially, it would also retain rate-setting powers for Councils and the Mayor of London, to ensure we don’t take a step back in Burnham’s drive for devolution.

Property tax reform is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid. The Chancellor and Prime Minister need a full review into our Property Tax System, to create a model which allows our housing market to work more effectively and supports Londoners into the homes that meet their needs.”

ENDS 

Notes to Editors   

• Centre for London is an independent think tank. A voice for all London is, and could be. We have no ties to any political party or any part of local or national government. We are a registered charity, no: 1151435.
• For press enquiries for Centre for London, please contact katie.townsend@centreforlondon.org, 07570 605754.
• Available spokespeople for Centre for London include Antonia Jennings, CEO, Rob Anderson, Research Director and Daniel Reast, Senior Researcher.
• To see our pre-budget statement, visit our website: https://centreforlondon.org/news/london-needs-budget-2026/