Chancellor announces date for Autumn Statement 2023

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has announced that he will present the Autumn Statement to Parliament on 22 November.

Hunt will use the Statement to set out future tax plans and departmental spending plans, although he may hold back on serious plans amid inflationary pressures. The Chancellor may also decide against favourable announcements until the Spring Budget as part of the general election, which must be held in January 2025 at the latest.

Hunt also confirmed he has commissioned an Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that will be presented alongside the statement.

The announcement will be Hunt’s third fiscal statement following his first in November 2022, which came as a hurried remedy to his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng’s divisive mini-budget in September 2022.

Since then, he and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have repeatedly promised to halve inflation amid a series of Bank of England interest rate rises.

Confirming the new budget date, he said: “On Friday, the Office for National Statistics published an update to the UK’s GDP growth figures which shows the UK economy was 0.6% larger than pre-pandemic levels by the fourth quarter of 2021.

“It means our economy had the fastest recovery from the pandemic of any large European economy, thanks to decisions such as furlough that protected millions of jobs.

“For that growth to continue we now need to halve inflation, which I am pleased to report is now nearly 40% below its 11% peak. I can also tell the House I will deliver the Autumn Statement on November 22.”

Tom Selby, head of retirement policy at AJ Bell, said:

“Rishi Sunak has placed tackling the cost-of-living crisis front-and-centre of his premiership after pledging to halve inflation by the end of 2023.

“By the time the Autumn Statement arrives in late November, we should have a pretty clear idea of whether that target – a target the government has very limited control over – will be hit.”

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