Budget 2024: What time is the chancellor's statement today and how can I watch on TV and stream?
All you need to know about the nuts and bolts of the financial statement, when it will be and what could be in it.
Wednesday 6 March 2024 09:22, UK
Jeremy Hunt is preparing to deliver his second spring budget today since taking over as chancellor, in what could be the last big fiscal moment before a general election.
Here's all you need to know about when it will be and what it might contain.
When is the budget?
This spring budget is on Wednesday 6 March.
The budget is accompanied by economic and fiscal outlooks from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the independent public finances forecaster.
What time is the announcement?
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will deliver the budget statement in the House of Commons.
The announcement usually starts at 12.30pm - directly after Prime Minister's Questions - and lasts about an hour.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will give his response as soon as the speech is over.
Before the announcement, the chancellor poses for the press with the red despatch box containing the budget papers.
How can I watch and follow the announcements?
You can follow all the key announcements in the Politics Hub here.
You can also watch the event live on Sky News on Sky channel 501, Virgin 602, and Freeview 233.
If you want to watch on YouTube, watch the Sky News live channel .
What is included in the budget?
The budget lays out the government's plans for raising and lowering taxes.
The chancellor will also speak on government plans for public spending, including on schools, health and defence.
The statement tends to start with a review of the nation's finances and its economic situation, moving on to the proposals for taxation.
What could be announced?
From tax cuts to vaping duty, everything we know about specific announcements can be found here.
What happens after the budget announcement?
It depends on what is in the statement. If the chancellor announces changes to taxes, then legislation may need to be brought in.
It may be that no big changes are announced that will come into force before the next budget - in which case, nothing more will happen.
What did the chancellor include in his spring budget last year?
Overall, it was a heavy spending budget, funded by borrowing.
Among the headline-grabbing announcements was the introduction of 30 hours of free childcare per week for children aged over nine months with working parents by September 2025.
He committed to increasing funding for nurseries providing free childcare to £288m.
He also scrapped the limit on tax-free pension savings and extended the pensions annual tax-free allowance from £40,000 to £60,000.
The chancellor said he decided to make the pension changes following warnings from senior NHS clinicians that unpredictable pension tax charges were forcing them to leave the NHS early "just when they are needed most".
Why is there a budget every year?
There needs to be a budget in every financial year because income tax and corporation tax are annual taxes which have to be renewed by legislation each year.
What's the difference between the autumn and spring statements?
While the last budget was in March last year, you may also remember the chancellor's autumn statement on 22 November.
In 2017 the government introduced a change that was supposed to mean the budget would take place in autumn, and a spring statement would be delivered shortly before the start of the financial year on 6 April.
This was to ensure the UK had a "single major fiscal event" each year, in line with other countries.
The idea is that the autumn budget is the main event, addressing taxation policy, while the spring statement provides an update on the state of the economy.