2018 Autumn Budget date announced
28th September 2018
Posted in Articles, Budget, Featured Articles by Forbes Dawson
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, announced this week that this year’s Budget will be brought forward to Monday, 29 October 2018.
The Autumn Budget falls the week after a Brexit summit in Brussels where EU leaders will decide if they will accept the UK’s proposals for Brexit. It is likely that the Budget, typically held in November, has been accelerated this year to avoid clashing with a subsequent ‘special’ Brexit summit in mid-November to seal a final deal. This means it is a big possibility that vital tax and spending decisions will be presented before the UK is certain it has a Brexit deal agreed.
In a Budget of many firsts, this will also be the first time since 1962 that the government will lay out its plans for the year’s expenditure on a Monday rather than a Wednesday. This has been widely speculated as a decision made to avoid the Halloween headlines that would undoubtedly follow such as ‘Budget announcements: no treats, just tricks!’ or ‘Hammond’s house of horrors’. However, critics have been quick to point out that rather inauspiciously, 29 October is the 89th anniversary of Black Monday, when the Wall Street Stock Market crash triggered the Great Depression…
