Autumn Budget 2026: Welcome investment in tackling misogyny, but further funding needed

This Wednesday 28th October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey delivered his first budget under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, with new funding announced to tackle misogyny and deliver the VAWG Strategy.

Funding for delivering the VAWG Strategy

It was positive to see violence against women and girls (VAWG) mentioned in the Budget for the first time under this Labour government, as well as renewed commitment to the mission to halve VAWG in a decade, including £55million to accelerate progress towards the VAWG Strategy.

While we welcome the government’s recognition of the importance of addressing the root causes of VAWG through its new misogyny prevention fund, we await further details of how this will work in practice. EVAW has long called for investment in preventative action to tackle VAWG. We cannot end VAWG without tackling the attitudes that uphold and facilitate violence and abuse, which are rooted in gender inequality and reinforced across our schools, workplaces, communities, public and online spaces. But we are clear that government must engage the VAWG sector in framing and shaping this fund.

In particular, we need to see more detail about whether the commissioning process is accessible and equitable to organisations led by and for Black, minoritised and migrant women. These vital organisations are too often marginalised by funding and commissioning processes despite providing highly specialist, holistic support to women who face some of the biggest barriers to justice and assistance.

In addition, we are concerned that the government does not undo the potential good work of this fund by creating a conductive context for VAWG and misogyny through unregulated AI and the hostile immigration environment.

More broadly, in a context where frontline VAWG services are facing immense pressure, with many still facing funding shortfalls, this budget has failed to provide the wider investment that the sector desperately needs.

Action to address gender inequality

Improvements to paid parental leave which would extend paid leave to self-employed fathers and partners, is a further positive step for gender equality. This ‘downpayment’ on wider reforms to parental leave, and recognition of the need to close the gender pay gap, are welcome first steps in addressing the underlying causes of gender inequality, misogyny and VAWG, but these alone are not enough.

We also welcome the removal of the cliff edge in the earnings threshold for those claiming Carer’s Allowance, given that the majority of unpaid carers are women. Similarly, efforts to address rough sleeping are welcome – we know that VAWG is one of the main drivers of rough sleeping for women and hope to see that recognised in future funding in this area.

The budget also contains some welcome measures to address the cost-of-living crisis, including measures to reduce rising energy costs for households and an increase in the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage. These will positively benefit women, who we know make up the majority of recipients. However these measures do not go far enough, and coupled with the lack of meaningful investment into departments such as rhe Department of Education, will also severely restrict attempts to halve VAWG in a decade.

We also share concerns voiced by Women’s Budget Group about the impact of reforms to social security, and reiterate their call that any new reforms should be put through an intersectional equality impact assessment.

AI regulation still lags behind

It was positive to see the Chancellor speak to the fact that “nowhere is the role for the state clearer than in AI”, however the measures announced in the budget fall significantly short of the regulation and safeguards needed to address the real and increasing threat that AI poses to women and girls. This includes the threat of deepfake abuse, chatbots and AI girlfriends.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition and Refuge’s recent report ‘Dangerous by Design’ found that two thirds of women surveyed were concerned about the role of AI technologies in enabling VAWG, and were not confident that the government is doing enough to regulate AI in the context of women’s safety. If the government is serious about its commitment to halve VAWG, it must establish robust AI regulation that prioritises the safety of women and girls. The current piecemeal approach to investment and regulation is putting survivors, and women and girls more broadly, in harm’s way.

ENDS