Chamber News
The Autumn Budget
29 October 2024 • Sarah Medcraf
Labour's first Budget for 14 years will be delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday 30 October. She has warned that it will involve "difficult decisions".
The Budget speech usually starts at about 12:30 UK time and lasts around an hour.
The current leader of the opposition, Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak, will give a speech responding to the Budget as soon as Reeves sits down.
Labour has repeatedly said that it needs to make difficult financial decisions.
When the party took power in July, Reeves said it had "inherited the worst set of circumstances since the Second World War" regarding the government finances, something the Conservatives deny.
Reeves is now looking to make tax rises and spending cuts to the value of £40bn, according to government sources.
She has repeatedly said there will be "no return to austerity", suggesting most of that gap will need to be filled with tax rises rather than spending cuts.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which monitors government spending, also produces an independent assessment of the health of the UK economy.
MPs will spend several days debating the plans.
They are then asked to approve the proposals and the government introduces a Finance Bill to turn the Budget announcements into law.
Read more HERE