Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirms he will hold his first proper budget on March 15 next year
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Jeremy Hunt will prepare a spring budget on March 15, 2023, the Treasury announced today.
The chancellor presented an autumn statement last month that was seen as a de facto budget as he sought to calm the British economy after a turbulent period.
In a written statement, he said: “Today I can inform the House that I have asked the Budget Responsibility Office (OBR) to prepare a forecast for a Spring Budget before March 15, 2023.
“In addition to the forecast that took place in November 2022, this forecast fulfills the obligation for the OBR to make at least two forecasts in a financial year, as required by law.”
The chancellor presented an autumn statement last month that was seen as a de facto budget as he sought to calm the British economy after a turbulent period.
According to a new economic forecast, the UK economy is on track to contract by 1.3 percent in 2023 amid a recession that is expected to last into the end of next year.
Economists at KPMG have predicted that the UK has already entered a “shallow but prolonged” recession amid continued inflation and higher interest rates.
Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said the increase in food and energy costs this year has reduced household purchasing power.
KPMG predicted that the country would enter a recession in the third quarter of 2022.
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the economy contracted by 0.2% in the third quarter, between July and September.
A technical recession is defined as at least two consecutive quarters of contraction.
It came as new numbers revealed how much money his treasury is bringing in from tax hikes.
According to figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UK tax revenue rose by £85.1 billion in the past financial year.
The global economic body found that total UK tax revenues recovered to £775.6bn over the year to March 2022, from £690.5bn a year earlier.
The jump was driven by the phased withdrawal of a series of tax credits for households and businesses introduced during the pandemic.
Tax revenue was also £225.2bn higher than a decade ago, up about 41 per cent, according to the OECD’s analysis of annual statistics.