The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the next UK Budget will take place on Wednesday, 3 March 2021. This will be the Chancellor’s second Budget and will focus on delivering the next phase of the plan to tackle the virus and protect jobs. The timeline for delivering Budgets has seen much change over the last few years as the government has been dealing with Brexit related issues and then with the coronavirus pandemic.

This will be the first Budget following the UK’s trade deal with the EU and we may see many new measures being announced. Details of all the Budget announcements will be made on a special section of the GOV.UK website which will be updated following completion of the Chancellor’s speech in March.

The Budget will be published alongside the latest forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR. The OBR has executive responsibility for producing the official UK economic and fiscal forecasts, evaluating the government’s performance against its fiscal targets, assessing the sustainability of and risks to the public finances and scrutinising government tax and welfare spending.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid has announced that he is planning to hold his first Budget on Wednesday, 11 March 2020.

This announcement follows a turbulent period in Parliament that saw the Autumn 2019 Budget pencilled in for 6 November 2019 and then cancelled as Brexit was delayed. With Brexit now looking set for 31 January 2020 and the Government working with a comfortable majority, the new date has been announced. The Budget traditionally took place in the spring but was moved a few years ago to the autumn. It remains to be seen if the Budget schedule will move back to the autumn and if we will have another Budget later in 2020.

The Chancellor said:

'With this Budget we will unleash Britain’s potential – uniting our great country, opening a new chapter for our economy and ushering in a decade of renewal.'

This will be the first Budget after the UK leaves the EU and we are likely to see many new measures being announced. We are also told that at the Budget, the Chancellor will also update the Charter of Fiscal Responsibility with new rules, to help HM Treasury take better advantage of the current low interest rates. 

The Treasury has also confirmed that the opportunity to submit representations for the Budget is now available. A Budget representation is a written representation from an interest group, individual or representative body to HM Treasury with the aim of commenting on Government policy and / or suggesting new policy ideas for inclusion in the Budget. Any submissions should be sent to HM Treasury by 7 February 2020.

Details of all the Budget announcements will be made on a special section of the GOV.UK website which will be updated following completion of the Chancellor’s speech in March.