Today, 8 July, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is delivering what is being described as a ‘summer statement’, or ‘mini-budget’.
At times, it feels as if he started delivering a Budget speech at midday on 11 March and hasn’t stopped since.
Announcing one coronavirus business support measure after another, he’s made himself the most popular member of the current cabinet.
Today looks likely to be one last flourish before he starts bracing himself to deliver a packed Autumn Budget later in the year – one which will be less about giveaways and more about clawing back the cost of subsidies, estimated to be anywhere up to £300 billion.
The Treasury is being cagy: this isn’t a Budget, or even a mini-Budget, just a kind of check in. Still, all the indications are that there will be some tax measures announced, although they may not kick in until the autumn.
There might be a cut in the rate of VAT, for example, to prod consumers into spending, and there’s been talk of a stamp duty holiday to get the housing market moving after almost four months of stasis.
It’s all speculation for now, though, and there’s no guarantee the Chancellor won’t surprise us. After all, he’ll want to capitalise on another moment in the spotlight, especially in the context of his sudden rise to prominence and Prime Ministerial potential.
By about 1.15 pm today, all should be clear.
What our clients can expect
At PracticeWeb, so-called ‘fiscal events’ – Budget or formal statement days – are big moments.
Over the past two decades, we’ve built a reputation for delivering detailed, plain English, branded summaries of successive chancellors’ speeches drawing on behalf of clients, ready to be delivered within 24 hours of the speech.
At present, we’re expecting to produce an eight-page document which we’ll be sending to all of our professional content subscribers, with their branding applied.
We’re also intending to produce a short explainer video to go with the update, for use on social media channels and on client websites.
It won’t be branded but if you’d like a branded version (colours, logos, contact details) contact hello@practiceweb.co.uk or get in touch with your PracticeWeb account manager.
If this turns into a surprise ‘proper’ Budget, however, we’ll switch to plan B and start work on a 12 or even 16-page report which will go to those signed up to our Budget reporting package.
We’ll also provide the usual news stories to clients websites via our daily newsfeed.
In addition, the fortnightly newsletter was due to go to clients at around 12pm today for checking, prior to dispatch to their clients 24 hours later, on 9 July. We’ve decided to delay that until later today so that we can ensure the content reflects the Chancellor’s speech.
And finally, tailored content clients for whom we write blog posts and articles will have the option of a bespoke summary of the speech, focused on their region and/or specialist sectors, as part of the service.
Image source: HM Treasury
