Budget 2026 resources (Now updated)
Updated: 2 days ago
Budget day is always a bit of a scramble for me. There is a lot to digest in a very short space of time, and the real teaching problem is deciding what to do with it. Is it an important event in getting students excited about Economics (Yes.) Do students need to know every measure? (No.) Do they need to be able to say something sensible about fiscal policy using a live example? (Yes, ideally.) Can we get them there while practising the other skills we want? (I hope so.)
This is the first Budget I have had that landed in the holidays, which has been lovely because it gave me a bit more time to think about how, and how much, to respond.
I have collected and made a bunch of things on John Healey's Budget, which was delivered on 28 October. They are aimed at A-Level Economics, although I suspect quite a lot of it would also work for GCSE Economics, A-Level Business or A-Level Politics. Almost all of it is self-contained, so it can be set for cover or homework, and there is easily more here than you need, so please pick and choose depending on what suits your students best.
A quick bit of housekeeping first: I have moved the pre-budget resources to their own page. If you saw something there that you want to keep an eye on, you can find it there.
To save you wading through loads of separate downloads, I have bundled everything into four master files: one PDF of all the explainers, one of all the paper activities, one of all the answers, and the PowerPoint. You can find those below. If you only want one task, you do not need to download the lot: each individual activity is linked from its title in the section it belongs to, and takes you to a page just for that activity.
Sharing policy for all items can be found here. Background for students
Students get a lot more out of the Budget details if they know what a budget is and what situation the Chancellor was dealing with, so these are worth considering for your class first.
How taxes can change covers the ways a tax can change that are not a simple rate rise: eligibility, reliefs, bands and so on. It works best as a primer before students look at the Budget itself, but it is also good reading and evaluation fodder for fiscal policy more generally.
How government spending can change is shorter, and looks at things like total versus per capita spending and funded versus unfunded spending promises.
The Budget handout has 2 pages on what a budget is and what we tend to see in one. You might want to print just those two pages as part of your fiscal policy teaching at any point in the year, so it is worth saving them even if you don't plan to have a budget lesson this year. The Budget powerpoint goes through that generic information too.
The Budget key terms match-up task goes through some of the key terms students are likely to come across and they have to match them up. It also works as a starter (see below).
Economics Observatory published a Where is UK public debt ahead of the Autumn 2026 budget? I have made an accompanying notes frame for students to complete on their own, so it works well as homework.
Guardian have an article on Six charts that reveal the economic realities facing the Chancellor is a useful look at the background the Budget landed in. There is a worksheet based on these charts in the activities here.
What was in the Budget
I have put together 2 page handout covering the key policies, which are also covered in a powerpoint.
The executive summary of the official budget report is slightly intimidating but well within reach of most students. If you want them to practise reading dense text, it is a good one to try. It is at the top of the official Budget 2026 document.
BBC have their usual key points at a glance and a how does it affect you? piece, plus an article on the tax thresholds, which is handy for fiscal drag.
The Guardian have key points article has a bit of analysis at the end of each point, and it is not behind a paywall.
Tutor2U has a powerpoint to download and a video version to set independently, alongside some written analysis.
Biz-omics have a Budget 2026 page that you can work through with question prompts, and it has a presentation mode. They also have a 5-minute video here.
Starters
Three of the activities work well as a starter, and between them they come to five separate pages, so there is enough here for a short task at the start of five lessons.
Budget in Numbers. The numbers are pulled from the Budget and students have to work out which one matches which statement. There are two pages, one with monetary values and one with percentages. (It's a PDF, but I would just display it on a board rather than printing it. Alternatively, it's in the PowerPoint on slides 18 to 21)
Pie chart match-up. There are two pages here, one pie chart for expected tax revenue and one for expected government spending. Again, it's a PDF but I recommend just displaying it (or you can find it on slides 13-17 on the PowerPoint). Students guess the proportions and match the sections to the labels.
Key terms match-up. The same one as above, doing double duty (one page).
Longer activities
Fact-check. Students assess some of the claims made by John Healey and Kemi Badenoch. They do not need much economic knowledge for this, so it is useful at any point in the course, and it would also fit nicely if you do any citizenship or media literacy work.
Quotation hunt. Students read the executive summary and find quotations to support given statements, which is a useful exam skill. Most students should be able to cope, but for your weakest, you might want to consider letting them use devices if you can so they can Ctrl+F. If you want to make more of this, you can also look at the different quotation formats, which I have talked about here (scroll down to Integrating Evidence).
Chart Analysis A worksheet on the six charts from the Guardian article, which is a nice bit of quantitative skills practice.
Impact assessment. Students consider the impact of different policies on different groups in society.
Macro impact. Students think through the effects of the Budget on the different macroeconomic objectives. This is differentiated three ways by using three different sources.
Policy analysis. This has become something of a staple now, but it mimics the skills that students want to use in an exam: making a chain of analysis and evaluating possible disadvantages.
How taxes change worksheet. This goes with the explainer above and looks at some of the subtler ways taxes changed in this Budget, rather than just rate changes. The Guardian has a Budget 2026 calculator that students might enjoy playing around with. You can put in different scenarios (different families and incomes, pensioner or not, landlord or not, smoker or not, what car you drive) and see how each would be affected. It is a nice way to make the impact of the Budget feel less abstract. Biz-omics have Winners and Losers and Be the Chancellow activities on their Budget 2026 page. I'm hoping there'll be some nice reading/watching/listening podcasts with longer-form analysis, which I will link below as and when I find them.