One of the surprises in this year's Autumn Statement was the announcement that the 2016 Autumn Statement would be the last one. A new structure was revealed for delivering news on the state of the nation's finances and making changes to fiscal policies.
Spring 2017 will see the final UK Budget held during springtime to be replaced by an Autumn Budget. Oddly this means that for next year there will actually be two full Budget events to transition in the changes.
Stakeholders have been calling for a change to the way the government timetables its announcements and changes and the updated schedule is in response to that. The OBR produces two economy forecasts a year and one will now be answered at the Autumn Budget, the other will have a small Spring Statement - this first one being in 2018.
Normally after the Autumn Statement, 'Legislation Day' sets out the changes for the upcoming year's Finance Bill. Now, the changes will be published after the Autumn Budget and this gives more time before the start of the new tax year for interested parties to bring themselves up to date on the announced updates.
The new schedule will therefore be as follows:
- Spring 2017 The final Spring Budget
- Autumn 2017 The first Autumn Budget
- Spring 2018 The first Spring Statement