{"id":3735,"date":"2018-10-29T05:09:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T05:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/philip-hammond-prepares-last-budget-before-brexit\/"},"modified":"2018-10-29T05:09:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T05:09:26","slug":"philip-hammond-prepares-last-budget-before-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/philip-hammond-prepares-last-budget-before-brexit\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Hammond prepares last Budget before Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Philip Hammond\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/4318\/production\/_104067171_5bc77a0d-d86e-4413-9fff-d3ca9fe6ad0f.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Reading the tea leaves: Philip Hammond preparing the budget<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Philip Hammond is preparing to present a Budget for the last time before the UK leaves the EU.<\/p>\n<p>The chancellor has said a change of approach &#8211; and a new Budget &#8211; would be needed if the UK and the EU cannot agree a Brexit deal.<\/p>\n<p>He has also hinted at money for the universal credit welfare reform, with MPs demanding extra investment.<\/p>\n<p>Labour is calling for a halt to the expansion of universal credit and &#8220;failed austerity&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month Prime Minister Theresa May promised an end to the cuts made to public spending since 2010 &#8211; and Mr Hammond will be under pressure to spell out how that will work.<\/p>\n<p>The Budget, which will be delivered at 15:30 GMT, is the government&#8217;s annual announcement about how it will impose taxes and spend public money &#8211; and what state the nation&#8217;s finances are in.<\/p>\n<p>Most of it is kept under wraps until the chancellor presents it to MPs, but some things have been announced ahead of the speech, including: <\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">An increase in spending on mental health services in England by at least \u00a32bn a year<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">A \u00a330bn package for England&#8217;s roads, including repairs to motorways and potholes<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">\u00a3900m in business rates relief for small businesses and \u00a3650m to rejuvenate high streets<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">\u00a360m on planting trees in England<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Another freeze in fuel duty<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Mr Hammond said the public finances were &#8220;performing well&#8221; but that detailed information on the government&#8217;s austerity pledge would have to wait for next year&#8217;s spending review.<\/p>\n<p>It will take place after the UK&#8217;s scheduled departure from the EU on 29 March 2019.<\/p>\n<p>If the UK gets a good deal from the EU, he said, &#8220;we will be able to show the British people that the fruits of their hard work are now at last in sight&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The two sides have not yet reached agreement, and both the UK and the EU are making contingency plans for what happens if there is no deal.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hammond told Sky News that in this scenario: &#8220;We would need to look at a different strategy and frankly we&#8217;d need to have a new Budget that set out a different strategy for the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the government had a &#8220;fiscal buffer&#8221; to provide protection for the economy if needed.<\/p>\n<p>Monday&#8217;s Budget will be based on the assumption of an &#8220;average-type free trade deal&#8221; being agreed between the two sides, he added.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"story-body__line\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Follow the Budget on the BBC<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Andrew Neil presents live coverage of the Budget from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/b0bqmj25\" class=\"story-body__link\">15:00 GMT on BBC Two<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">BBC Radio 5 Live has live coverage from the House of Commons from 15:30<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">There will also be live updates and analysis on the BBC website<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"story-body__line\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Cash for universal credit?<\/h2>\n<p>The chancellor has been under growing pressure &#8211; including from some Tory MPs &#8211; to provide more money to protect people losing out from the switch to universal credit, which merges six working-age benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about this, Mr Hammond told the BBC &#8220;judge me by my record&#8221; &#8211; saying he had committed extra money to the scheme in each of his previous two major financial statements.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we see things that need addressing, we address them,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Labour said the entire Budget should be voted down unless the government agrees to halt the roll-out of universal credit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The callous complacency of the chancellor who has refused to make good on the Tories&#8217; promise to end austerity is shocking,&#8221; added shadow chancellor John McDonnell.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nothing less than an end to failed austerity in tomorrow&#8217;s budget will be acceptable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Mental health investment<\/h2>\n<p>The \u00a32bn mental health pledge is included in a \u00a320bn boost to the NHS announced by the government in June.<\/p>\n<p>The current annual mental health spend is about \u00a312bn.<\/p>\n<p>The new funds will go towards ensuring round-the-clock mental health support in major A&amp;E centres and providing more mental health ambulances.<\/p>\n<p>People calling the non-urgent 111 number will be directed to the right support thanks to the investment, the government promised.<\/p>\n<p>Labour responded: &#8220;If this announcement is simply money that&#8217;s already been promised, it will do little to relieve the severe pressures on mental health services that have built up because of this Tory government&#8217;s relentless underfunding of the NHS.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-46010550\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Reading the tea leaves: Philip Hammond preparing the budget Philip Hammond is preparing to present a Budget for the last time before the UK leaves the EU. The chancellor has said a change of approach &#8211; and a new Budget &#8211; would be needed if the UK and the &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}