Chancellor announces Autumn Budget date (1)

Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced that he will deliver the Autumn Budget on Monday 29 October.

The 2018 Autumn Budget will be the final Budget before the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.

The Chancellor will deliver this year’s Budget earlier than usual, in a bid to avoid important final Brexit negotiations and a special European Council meeting, set to convene in November.

A Monday delivery of this year’s Budget breaks away from tradition – typically, Budgets are held on a Wednesday, after Prime Minister’s Questions.

In a statement, the Treasury said that this year’s Budget will build on announcements made in the Spring Statement and the 2017 Budget in order to help build a ‘stronger, more prosperous economy’.

The 2018 Autumn Budget will be the second of its kind under the government’s new fiscal timetable: in 2016, the Chancellor moved the annual Budget from the Spring to the Autumn, abolishing the Autumn Statement and replacing it with the Spring Statement.