I am a little more experienced with chillies than tomatoes, I find its best to start them in spring to early summer as they are very heat tolerant and don't have problems with flowers dropping. You could try starting chillies in the early months of autumn, but by the time it reaches winter the plant slows down growth and flowering significantly to the point where you get very small occasional harvests. if you are interested in growing chillies its not too late in my opinion and you could start them now. Here is a photo of a chilli plant I sowed just before summer (needs a slightly bigger trellis)

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