Autumn Statement 2023: when is it and what will Jeremy Hunt unveil?

The Autumn Statement will be delivered on Wednesday 22 November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt has confirmed.

The event is an important date for your calendar as Hunt will update MPs on the country's finances and the government's plans for tax and public spending, based on the latest forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Rumours are already swirling about what the Chancellor will - and won't - announce, so let's take a closer look at some of the likely changes Hunt might make.

What changes will be in the Autumn Statement?

As well as providing information on the UK government's anticipated revenue generation, the announcement will include plans for taxation and public spending.

We'll be keeping an eye on the most plausible rumours of what could feature in the speech and updating this story regularly.

Cut inflation not taxes

Hunt is under pressure from some Tory MPs to cut taxes following a series of threshold freezes and reduction of allowances which came into force in April.

While he hasn't ruled it out, the Chancellor told the BBC on 3 September that the government's priority is to make good on its promise to halve inflation by the end of the year. The pledge was made by the Prime Minister in January when CPI inflation was 10.1%, so it would need to drop to around 5% by December.

'If we are going to put money in people’s pockets quickly, the fastest thing I can do is deliver the Prime Minister’s pledge to halve inflation,' he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

'Because that puts not one pence in the pound which might be a tax cut but five pence in the pound in people’s pockets which they wouldn’t have had if inflation stayed high.'

Find out more:

Defence spending boost

There is likely to be pressure on the Treasury to pump extra money into defence.

In an interview with LBC on 5 September, the new Defence Secretary Grant Shapps made it clear he will seek increased funding for the armed forces, warning critics not to 'underestimate' him. 

He points to the war in Ukraine as one reason why the department should receive extra funding.

'The amount that we’re spending, the proportion of our gross domestic product that we’re spending on defence, is on the rise,' he told Sky News. 'And we’ve already said that we want to see that, over the long term as conditions allow, to go up to 2.5%.'

Find out more: 

What happened in last year's speech?

Last year's Autumn Statement took place on 17 November 2022.

It contained a mix of income tax threshold freezes, a cut to the additional-rate tax threshold, reductions in the capital gains tax and dividend allowances and details on the government's energy support plans.

Find out more:

source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/autumn-statement-2023-what-it-means-for-your-money-ahPDN3o9cK1f
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