Tuesday 27 October 2026 5:27 am  |  Updated:  Tuesday 27 October 2026 10:52 am

Autumn Budget 2026: Healey will buy some time with the bond markets

By: Helen Thomas

CEO & Founder - Blonde Money

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Ahead of the upcoming Budget, the Debt Management Office’s financing choices and shifting market demands pose a critical test for government borrowing stability, says Helen Thomas

Another year, another Budget. The same party remains in charge, but a fresh cast of characters will deliver it, bringing fresh uncertainty over the government’s economic direction. For John Healey, the first Chancellor to bear that surname since Denis Healey’s unfortunate encounter with the IMF in 1976, the incentive to “do no harm” is particularly strong.

Yet the officials whose announcements could matter most to financial markets on Wednesday sit a short distance from Downing Street, at 21 Mincing Lane. The Debt Management Office will update the government’s financing plans for this financial year, alongside projections of the demands to come.

This is consequential small print. Ministers decide how much to tax and spend but it is the DMO who arranges the borrowing that makes those decisions possible. Working within the Treasury’s remit, it manages the mix of gilts, their maturities and the timetable of auctions. Its choices help determine how readily the government can find buyers, and how much refinancing risk taxpayers carry.

Recently, that has meant retreating from the long end of the market.........

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