Reader Q&A: Our money and economics correspondents answer your Budget 2026 questions

The headline is a reader Q&A in which the Guardian's money and economics correspondents, Heather Stewart and Hilary Osborne, respond to readers' questions about the forthcoming UK Budget 2026. The item itself reports no policy measures, forecasts, or market moves, so its direct price impact is minimal. Any transmission to markets would run through the Budget's eventual content: fiscal changes affect gilt yields via expected borrowing and debt-issuance levels, and tax or spending decisions shape household disposable income, which feeds consumer spending and sterling. Gilts and sterling are the assets most exposed to Budget expectations, while UK domestic equities, particularly housebuilders, retailers and mortgage-sensitive lenders, tend to react to anticipated changes in property taxes, income taxes and interest-rate expectations. Traders should watch the Office for Budget Responsibility's accompanying forecast and the Debt Management Office's gilt auction calendar around the Budget date, since revisions to borrowing and growth projections are the concrete inputs that would reprice these assets.

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