Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is to scrap the Pre-Budget Report, which was a key part of the previous Labour Government’s economic update and was, in effect, a second annual Budget statement.
Instead of the PBR speech, which was traditionally made in November or early December, the Chancellor is expected to outline the official economic forecast alongside a brief statement and potentially some consultation papers in what will be known as an ‘autumn statement’.
Rather than concentrating of the PBR, the Chancellor’s focus is currently on the spending review statement, which is due on October 20. It will set Whitehall departmental budgets until the end of this Parliament in 2014 and implement the coalition’s radical deficit-cutting programme.
No date has been set for the autumn statement, but it is not expected to be published on the same day as the spending review.
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