Chancellor confirms Spring Budget 2017 date

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond has announced that the Government will publish its next and final Spring Budget on Wednesday 8th March 2017.

This will be the last Budget to take place in the Spring, with Hammond confirming in his Autumn Statement 2016 that Budgets will be delivered in the Autumn from 2017 onwards.

Hammond said in November: “No other major economy makes hundreds of tax changes twice a year, and neither should we.

“So the spring Budget in a few months will be the final spring Budget.

“Starting in autumn 2017, Britain will have an autumn Budget, announcing tax changes well in advance of the start of the [next] tax year.”

Instead, in Spring 2018 there will be a Spring Statement, responding to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecasts, but it will not be a “major fiscal event”.

The Spring Budget 2017 will be announced just days before the deadline for triggering Article 50, beginning the two-year process of the UK negotiating its exit from the European Union (EU).

The UK is currently the only major advanced economy to make major changes to its tax system twice a year and Hammond believes the change to one annual Budget will mean businesses and people will face fewer changes to the tax system, promoting certainty and stability within the UK economy.

The majority of fiscal measures proposed at a Budget will still be subject to policy consultation in the Spring and publication of draft legislation in the Summer, before being legislated in the Finance Bill after the following Budget.

The Chancellor has already stated that he is keen to allow for an earlier stage of involvement on key strategic challenges, so he may seek to launch consultations on how to address longer-term fiscal issues at the Spring Statement.





Image: Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Date published 22 Dec 2016 | Last updated 22 Dec 2016