In the United Kingdom, the Autumn Statement (1976–1992, 2010–2016), at times the Summer Statement (1993–1996) and the Pre-Budget Report (1997–2009), is one of the two statements HM Treasury makes each year to Parliament upon publication of economic forecasts, the other being the annual Budget. The Autumn Statement and the Budget both usually involve speeches in the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There are expected to be two Budget speeches in 2017, followed by a Spring Statement in 2018.
Contents
History
The duty to publish two annual economic forecasts was created by the Industry Act 1975, with the first such publication occurring in December 1976. The first Autumn Statement combined the announcement of this publication with any announced changes to national insurance contributions and the Government's announcement of its spending plans (and publication of the Red Book), both of which were also made at approximately the same time in the parliamentary year.
In 1993, Conservative Chancellor Kenneth Clarke combined the announcement of spending with the Budget, merging tax and spending announcements. Doing so moved the Budget to November. To fulfill the legal obligation to make two statements, Clarke began the practice of making a Summer Statement focusing on economic growth forecasts. Unlike the Autumn Statements preceding them and the Pre-Budget Reports that replaced them, Summer Statements took the form of debate on a motion "that this House welcomes the publication of the Government's latest economic forecast, which..." rather than as a statement to the House of Commons.
In 1997, Labour's new Chancellor, Gordon Brown, moved the Budget back to spring and replaced the second statement with the Pre-Budget Report (PBR). According to the "Code for Fiscal Stability", published by HM Treasury in November 1998, the PBR was intended to "encourage debate on the proposals under consideration for the Budget". The PBR included a report on progress since the Budget, an update on the state of the national economy and the Government's finances, and announcements of proposed new tax measures and consultation papers.
Conservative Chancellor George Osborne replaced the PBR and its policy announcements in 2010 with a new Autumn Statement focusing on economic growth and government finances as projected by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR). Osborne's 2015 statement on 25 November was a joint Autumn Statement and Spending Review, and included a new forecast by the OBR.
In 2016, Conservative Chancellor Phillip Hammond announced his intention to end the Autumn Statement: instead of a Budget in the Spring, and an Autumn Statement, there will instead be a Budget in the Autumn, and a Spring Statement, with the first in early 2018.
List of statements
There were hopes that the Autumn Statement on 23 November 2016 would provide modest help for families that are 'Just About Managing' on relatively low income, known as JAMs. Poverty charity Turn2us defines JAMs in an interview with the i Newspaper as, "JAMs define the increasingly large section of society that may be in work but are struggling to pay for essentials such as food, heating or – more commonly – rent. The financial pressures that we are seeing every day from people who we deal with puts people into a very precarious situation where a change in their circumstances, such as redundancy or the death of a loved one, can push them into poverty." Many benefits that JAM's claim will be frozen in cash terms while inflation is likely to rise so the real value of these benefits will fall. The Resolution Foundation stated, "When set against all other policy changes announced since the 2015 election, the [2016] Autumn Statement] only undoes 7% of the hit from benefit cuts to the bottom half of the income distribution."