Rolling coverage and analysis as chancellor Philip Hammond presents his first autumn statement
Latest: Borrowing will be £122bn bigger than planned
Growth to fall to 1.4% in 2017
Government abandons 2020 surplus goal
Hammond gives autumn statement: highlights start here
Tell us how Hammond’s statement affects you
2.18pm GMT
Brexit may mean Brexit, but for the OBR it also means a major headache when it has tried to assess the likely path of the UK economy.
Like the rest of us, it doesn’t know what deal Britain will get - hard, soft, smooth, or something else entirely.
...any likely Brexit outcome would lead to lower trade flows, lower investment and lower net inward migration than we would otherwise have seen, and hence lower potential output.
2.17pm GMT
Philip Hammond is setting aside almost £0.5bn to help the civil service prepare for Brexit, the autumn statement document reveals. Here is the key paragraph, 3.34. We’ve highlighted the key sentence in bold.
Additional resource will be provided to strengthen trade policy capability in the Department for International Trade (DIT) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, totalling £26 million a year by 2019-20. There will also be additional resource of up to £51 million in 2016-17 for the Department for Exiting the European Union to support the re-negotiation of the UK’s relationship with the European Union. Up to £94 million a year of additional resource will be allocated from 2017-18 until the UK’s exit is complete. In total this will mean up to £412 million of additional funding over the course of this Parliament.
2.04pm GMT
The next time a Conservative politician talks about getting the debt under control, direct them to page 14 of the OBR’s economic and fiscal outlook.
It shows that Britain’s national debt is expected to hit £1.945trn by 2019-20, the end of the current parliament, and continue climbing to £1.952trn by 2021-22.
Wow. OBR forecasts £220bn increase in national debt by end of parliament to staggering £1.945 trillion. Huge Brexit impact
1.56pm GMT
And here is the key table from the autumn statement document (pdf) - the scorecard, saying what the various measures in the statement cost, or raise in revenue.
1.51pm GMT
Here’s that OBR scorecard in full:
#AutumnStatement OBR points out past fiscal rules breached, new ones focused on "structural deficit" so easier to meet than overall deficit pic.twitter.com/E8WOfiED7o
1.49pm GMT
You can find all the autumn statement documents here, on the Treasury website.
1.45pm GMT
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility has just released its verdict.
And it rules that Philip Hammond has delivered a ‘modest giveaway’, alongside a decidedly weaker economic landscape.
The Chancellor has relaxed his fiscal targets to make space for a modest infrastructure spending giveaway over the next five years.
A weaker outlook for the economy and tax revenues – and these new spending commitments – mean that the budget is no longer expected to return to surplus in this Parliament, with a £21 billion deficit remaining in 2020-21.
Public sector net borrowing is now expected to fall more slowly than we forecast in March, primarily reflecting weak tax receipts so far this year and a more subdued outlook for economic growth as the UK negotiates a new relationship with the European Union.
1.40pm GMT
We were promised a sober, gimmick-free autumn statement from Philip Hammond and, appropriately enough, the main surprise at the end of Hammond’s speech was an announcement that he is abolishing the Treasury’s biannual tax-and-spend bonanza. It was Gordon Brown who created the autumn statement in its modern form, a budget in all but name, and most economists and governance experts will agree with Hammond about these being unnecessary, because governments do not need to re-write the tax code every six months. MPs laughed, though, when Hammond announced this because it is clear that next year we will get two budgets, and after that we will a “spring statement” that may over time morph into an alternative budget. Most of the positive announcements in the statement had been flagged up well in advance, but it sounded as if some of his revenue-raising measures will be more significant than MPs realised. Graeme and I will be delving into the small print shortly. And there was also an intriguing reference to the ageing population, and the need to review budgets after 2020, which sounded like the death knell to the triple lock.
1.35pm GMT
We’re collecting all the key points from Hammond’s statement here:
Related: Key points of the autumn statement – at a glance
1.29pm GMT
Hammond says this autumn statement responds to the challenges the country faces. It responds to the challenge of the country living beyond its means. And it provides helps to those who need it.
And that’s it. Hammond has finished.
1.28pm GMT
Hammond says this is his first autumn statement - and his last.
He is abolishing the autumn statement.
1.26pm GMT
Hammond says he is cancelling the proposed fuel duty rise for the seventh successive year.
This will save the average driver £130 a year, and the average van driver £350 a year.
1.24pm GMT
Hammond says the government will consider measures to help savers. It is proposing a savers bond for them. It will pay 2.2% interest.
1.24pm GMT
Hammond turns to letting agents. Their fees have spiralled, despite attempts to regulate them. This is wrong, he says. The government will ban fees for tenants.
And it will ban pension cold-calling, he says.
1.22pm GMT
Hammond says he can go further to help families on low wages.
Universal credit is an important reform, he says.
1.22pm GMT
Philip Hammond managed a rare trick in his first autumn statement -- he made the UK economy look even worse than we feared.
Britain’s Brexit black hole is at least £122bn -- even larger than the £100bn that the City was expecting.
Scale of extra borrowing is much worse than expected - borrowing an additional £122bn cumulatively by 2020/21
New borrowing forecasts are a cumulative £122B higher over the next five years #AutumnStatement pic.twitter.com/e81xHZKaZH
Tory economic failure: Borrowing has been revised UP by £122 billion #AutumnStatement pic.twitter.com/QbRZQ6wawl
1.21pm GMT
Hammond says the government has given a pay rise to low-paid workers through the “national living wage”.
He says he is making capital available for new grammar schools.
1.20pm GMT
Hammond turns to the personal allowance.
It will rise to £11,500 in April, he says.
1.18pm GMT
Hammond says the government has done more than any other to tackle tax avoidance and evasion.
The tax gap is one of the lowest in the world, he says.
1.16pm GMT
Hammond says from April 2017 employers and employees who use benefits in kind schemes will pay the same tax as everyone else. But there will be exceptions, including for childcare and cycling.
1.15pm GMT
Hammond says insurance premium tax will rise from 10% to 12%
And he says the government will change the rules on whiplash compensation, saving drivers £40 a year on average.
1.14pm GMT
Hammond says he wants Britain to remain the number one destination for business.
He knows how much business values certainty. So the government will stick to the business tax plans set out in the March budget.
1.11pm GMT
He says the government will keep its commitments to protect budgets it said it would protect.
But in the next parliament it will have to tackle the challenges of an ageing population. So budgets will be reviewed at the next spending review.
1.10pm GMT
Hammond says, having run two big spending departments, he came to this job with fixed views on departmental spending.
He wants £1bn from savings to be refocused in priority areas.
1.09pm GMT
Hammond says public spending has a proportion of GDP has fallen to 40%.
He says the government has demonstrated that controlling spending is compatible with having world-class services.
1.08pm GMT
Hammond says £102 money from Libor fines will be distribute to service charities.
And money from the Tampon tax fund will go to women’s charities.
1.06pm GMT
Hammond says he has deliberately avoided making this statement a list of specific projects.
But he can announce a plan to protect Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham, a model for the house in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The government will provide a £7.5m grant to help preserve this piece of northern heritage, he says.
1.05pm GMT
Hammond says devolution remains at the government’s approach. A new city deal for Stirling is being negotiated. This means every city in Scotland will be on course to have one.
City regions will get new borrowing powers, he says.
1.04pm GMT
Former Labour advisor Baron Wood tweets:
National debt averaged under 40% for 13 years of Labour government. Philip Hammond has just announced it will reach 90% in 2017-18 under him
1.03pm GMT
Hammond says for too long investment has been focused on London.
No other major economy has such a gap between the productivity of its capital, and its other cities.
1.02pm GMT
Hammond says this investment will provide the backbone to the government’s industrial strategy.
He will double UK Export’s financial capacity.
1.01pm GMT
Hammond says he has written to the National Infrastructure Commission asking for proposals for spending in the next decade.
The govenrment will commit to spending between 1% and 1.2% of GDP from 2020 on economic infrastructure.
12.59pm GMT
The UK needs world-class digital infrastructure.
He wants the UK to be a world-leader in 5G, he says.
12.58pm GMT
Hammond says the transport secretary will set out more details over the coming weeks.
12.57pm GMT
Hammond says there will be an extra £1.1bn invested in English transport networks, where small investments can often achieve big wins.
Some of this will go on rail, which Jeremy Corbyn will welcome, he says.
12.57pm GMT
So far: Hammond has predicted SLOWER growth, HIGHER inflation, WEAKER tax receipts, HIGHER borrowing. Gulp
12.56pm GMT
Hammond says for many the goal of home ownership remains out of reach.
The challenge of delivering housing where it is not affordable is not a new one. But this is an urgent challenge.
New £2.3bn Housing Infrastructure Fund for infrastructure for up to 100,000 new homes in high demand areas #AutumnStatement pic.twitter.com/Bnp0LUYM5c
12.54pm GMT
Hammond says the government will form a new national productivity investment fund worth £23bn. It will focus on innovation and infrastructure.
Investment in R&D will rise by £2bn a year by 2020.
12.52pm GMT
He says in the autumn statement he will prioritise high-value investment in infrastructure.
He says the government’s hard-won credibility on spending means it can fund this from extra borrowing, while funding everything else in the statement from taxation and spending cuts.
12.52pm GMT
Here are three fiscal rules which Hammond has just proposed:
Chancellor: Today I am publishing a new draft Charter for Budget Responsibility, with 3 new fiscal rules #AutumnStatement
Fiscal rule 1: borrowing should be below 2% by the end of this parliament #AutumnStatement
Fiscal rule 2: Public sector net debt as a share of GDP must be falling by the end of this parliament #AutumnStatement
Fiscal rule 3: Welfare spending must be within a cap, set by the government and monitored by OBR #AutumnStatement
12.50pm GMT
Hammond jokes about the representations he has received from Labour.
And he has received representations from other bodies, he says.
12.49pm GMT
Hammond announces the borrowing figures.
It will be £68.2bn this year, and £59bn next year, he says.
12.46pm GMT
Hammond says the govenrment does not expect to balance the budget by 2020.
It is publishing new rules.
12.44pm GMT
Hammond turns to the forecasts.
Since 2010 the OBR has done forecasts.
12.42pm GMT
12.41pm GMT
Hamond pays tribute to George Osborne.
He says he will be no better at proving rabbits from hats (Osborne’s speciality) than Boris Johnson is at retrieve balls from the back of scrums (a joke about Johnson not becoming prime minister.)
12.40pm GMT
Hammond says the Brexit decision makes more urgent than ever the need to tackle the economy’s weaknesses.
He says the government resolves to confront those challenges head on.
12.39pm GMT
Philip Hammond rises to make his statement.
(John Bercow points out he is also first secretary of state, as well as chancellor.)
12.36pm GMT
The Conservative Charlie Elphicke asks about fuel duty. Fuel prices go up like a rocket, when the oil price rises, but fall like a feather when it goes down, he says.
May says Elphicke should wait for the autumn statement.
12.34pm GMT
Asked to rule out any more referendums this parliament, May ruled out a second referendum on the EU. But she did not rule out a second referendum on Scottish independence (although she has in the past said she is not in favour of one).
12.32pm GMT
May says austerity is about living within our means. When we talk about support for the homeless, we must remember that taxpayers pay for that support, she says. And many of them are struggling.
12.27pm GMT
John Whittingdale, the Conservative former culture secretary, welcomes the expected £1bn for superfast broadband in the autumn statement. May says investment in this field is crucial.
12.26pm GMT
At least three former chancellors are in the Commons to watch Philip Hammond’s debut fiscal statement:
Nigel Lawson watching from the peers' gallery. Ken Clarke and Osborne sitting next to each other. #AutumnStatement
12.26pm GMT
ITV’s Robert Peston can see the funny side of #AutumnStatement.
There'll be loads of road schemes funded by @PHammondMP in #AutumnStatement. Obvs he misunderstood @theresa_may when she said sort out JAMs
12.25pm GMT
From Sky’s Beth Rigby
The three #Brexiteers - Davis, Johnson, Fox - nowhere near Hammond for #PMQs & #AS. "No accident" texts one MP to me
12.23pm GMT
This is a sign that today’s autumn statement might be less dramatic than usual:
I'm told the #AutumnStatement document, ordinarily 100+ pages, is just 64 pages long - half the length it was in 2013
12.22pm GMT
PMQs - Snap verdict: That exchange will be overshadowed by the autumn statement coming soon, but that’s a shame for Jeremy Corbyn because that was one of his best ever PMQs performances. He sounded passionate and focused, and, although Theresa May sounded confident when defending measures to combat health tourism (in response to Corbyn’s fifth question) her answers on the topic of social care sounded bland and unsatisfactory. One problem was that she did not engage emotionally with Corbyn’s questions, and instead, sounding like an accountant, kept going on about government initiatives like the “Better Care Fund” which mean little to most listeners. Corbyn sounded a lot more authentic. Interestingly, he also at least twice defended the record of the Blair/Brown governments (on health spending, and on setting up the CQC), which is not something you always hear from Corbyn at PMQs. Doubtless some Labour MPs will assume that there is a link between that and the way this afternoon he scored a decisive win.
12.14pm GMT
Corbyn says the home in the Panorama programme was understaffed. He says poorly-paid staff should not be blamed. A warning from the CQC is not enough. Has the government considered the impact of getting patients to have to take their passports to hospitals to get care. Some 9.5m people do not have passports.
May says over the course of this parliament the government will be spending £500bn. She says there has been a problem with people turning up to access services but not paying for them.
12.10pm GMT
Corbyn say health spending trebled under Labour. And levels of satisfaction reached a record high. He says the number of people in hospital because of lack of care has gone up by one third.
May repeats what the government has done. She asks which government put the triple lock in place for pensioners.
12.07pm GMT
Jeremy Corbyn asks about the governments plans for the NHS, which he says hide cuts worth £22bn, according to the BMA. He says the BMA’s Mark Porter says this is a mess. Where is he wrong?
Theresa May says savings will be reinvested within the NHS. The government is providing not just £8bn for the NHS, but £10bn.
12.02pm GMT
From the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman
PMQs and Autumn Statement about to start in the Commons. All seats taken but it is hardly rammed.
12.01pm GMT
PMQs has started.
12.01pm GMT
Philip Hammond just entered the chamber to rather lusty cheers from the Tory benches
12.00pm GMT
This is from the Evening Standard’s Kate Proctor.
Theresa May having a good laugh with @DavidDavisMP behind the speakers chair as she enters #PMQs perhaps a LOL at how well EU meetings went.
11.59am GMT
The devolved government in Belfast’s Finance Minister has called for a “Niagra Falls stimulus” of extra infrastructure spending for Northern Ireland in the region.
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, the Sinn Fein Minister, said the government needs to invest in infrastructure “to give the economy a jolt.”
11.57am GMT
This is from the Sun’s Steve Hawkes.
George Osborne sitting next to fellow Europhile Kenneth Clarke in the Chamber.
On his other side, Alan Mak
11.55am GMT
PMQs will be starting shortly. We will be covering the Theresa May/Jeremy Corbyn exchanges, and any autumn statement related questions, but not the whole thing. As the former Labour adviser Theo Bertram says, PMQs before the autumn statement is normally a bit of a non-event.
PMQs before a budget or Autumn statement is usually Gijón: it suits both sides not to play.https://t.co/p1SIvyxaLz
11.50am GMT
Here's that inflation graphic that @bbckamal just used on our #AutumnStatement programme pic.twitter.com/PZHGx0XXNK
11.45am GMT
One of the City’s leading fund managers, Toby Nangle of Columbia Threadneedle, hopes that Philip Hammond will produce new measures to boost investment.
He tells Sky News that:
The real issue of concern for us is the investment side. With Brexit looming over, the surveys have been pointing down. So anything he can do on that side would be quite helpful.
A shift away from targeting actual budget surpluses to primary surpluses is a very sensible thing that most people will support.
It facilitates investment - and that investment is really what we need as a country.
11.43am GMT
Here is ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, on the autumn statement.
If this was a normal government, #AutumnStatement surprise would be more cash for social care & health. Not sure this is a normal government
11.40am GMT
Theresa May has welcomed Philip Hammond’s “prudent” approach to running Britain’s economy as he prepares to deliver his first autumn statement, reviving a favourite catchphrase of Gordon Brown’s.
Hammond set out his plans for his first set-piece parliamentary event as chancellor to his fellow ministers at Wednesday morning’s cabinet meeting.
11.28am GMT
This is what Theresa May told the cabinet about the autumn statement, according to Number 10.
This is an autumn statement which will deliver on the government’s commitment to build an economy which works for everyone and sets the economy on the right path for the long term.
This is a balanced and prudent autumn statement which will make clear Britain is open for business and the government is on the side of ordinary working people struggling to make ends meet.
11.22am GMT
That really was a muted appearance by Philip Hammond on Downing Street; he looked more like a man heading to the shops for some milk than a chancellor preparing to update the nation on its finances....
Sky News’ Faisal Islam hoped for a bit more...
Extraordinarily low key exit from number 11 by the Chancellor.
11.17am GMT
Here is another profile of Philip Hammond, from Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt.
Who is the real Philip Hammond? https://t.co/17Lavv0yN1 via @BBCNews
From @nicholaswatt on Hammond's relations with Brexiteers pic.twitter.com/L2OlyMWGLv
11.14am GMT
Philip Hammond has just emerged from Number 11 Downing Street, clutching a copy of autumn statement.
But he’s not hanging around for photos -- the chancellor heads straight to his ministerial limo for the short drive to the House of Commons.
11.10am GMT
The chancellor tweets....
My #AutumnStatement today is focused on preparing & supporting the economy as we begin writing a new chapter in our country’s history
11.06am GMT
As well as reading your comments below the line we’d like to hear from readers who will be affected by the chancellor’s announcements today via a dedicated callout.
Related: Tell us how you might be affected by Philip Hammond's autumn statement
10.59am GMT
Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation, has been tweeting about the Treasury’s decision to change the taper rates to ameliorate the impact of universal credit cuts.
All support for just managing families is to be welcomed but after this small tweak they will still be the big losers over next few years https://t.co/95Yiogiln7
Big picture: Universal Credit cuts will hit family budgets by many billions of £s - 2% taper reduction only gives back a few hundred million
Here's the family impacts - single parents still lose up to £2800 from work allowance cuts while some only gain up to £200 via 2% taper cut pic.twitter.com/HTkwT7uRPl
10.53am GMT
The government’s decision to target the JAMs has sparked a spread of new acronyms to capture modern Britain’s tribes.
Freelance journalist Jane Merrick is leading the charge, with a series of groups that every serious politician should be targeting:
First we have the JELLIES: Just Enjoying Life, Large Income, Everything Solvent. #AutumnStatement
Next we have MARMALADE: Middle Aged, Rather More Affluent, Living A Dream Existence #AutumnStatement
Then the PRESERVES: Pension-Rich, Everything Saved Early, Retirement Vacationers, Equity-Savvy. #AutumnStatement
One of my favourites - the CHUTNEYS: Children have unfortunately taken nearly everything you saved. #AutumnStatement
CURD: Cash-uncertain, rental despondency https://t.co/Ftg9FcLJ93
@janemerrick23 or maybe BUTTER - Borrowing until tough times eventually relent
@janemerrick23 In contrast to MARMITE - mildly affluent, rather more invested than economically sensible
@janemerrick23 In the US, alas, they now have MARGARINEs - Make America Really Great Again, Really Incredible (No Ethnics)
10.46am GMT
Jeremy Corbyn has been tweeting about the autumn statement.
As of the last Budget, 86% of Tory savings through tax & benefit changes since 2010 came from women #AutumnStatement https://t.co/xiKoZLo90O
10.37am GMT
Labour have just published some prebuttal of the autumn statement.
They say that poorer families will still be worse off, even if Philip Hammond cut the taper rate on universal credit, from 65p to 63p in the pound (meaning families lose less benefits if they do more paid work).
“Some working families, who will have lost as much as £2,500 a year, might only be getting back as little as £150 in this Statement.
10.27am GMT
Roughly £50m has been wiped off the combined value of Foxtons and Countrywide this morning.
Both company’s shares are still down sharply today, thanks to the looming clampdown on tenancy fees. This rather undermines the claim that these fees aren’t a lucrative source of easy income for estate agents.
Theresa May and Hammond's #AutumnStatement effect on agents after banning letting fees: pic.twitter.com/oxKYc21PNE
10.10am GMT
Here is another of the pictures that Philip Hammond posed for yesterday, for use in advance of today’s autumn statement. Like the one at 8.50am, it seems intended to convey a sense of calm poise.
And it is no surprise to see that Hammond is a tidy desk man. This is what Kate Allen and George Parker say about him in a Financial Times profile (subscription).
Mrs May is Mr Hammond’s most important cabinet ally, but their relationship is less close than the one shared by David Cameron and Mr Osborne.
“They don’t meet three to four times a day, they meet three to four times a week,” one Hammond staffer said. “It is a more formal relationship but they are both very formal kinds of people. He is not a casual feet-up-on-the-table kind of guy, he’s the type of man who wears suits on aeroplanes.”
Political decision-making has long operated through the red box system: civil servants prepare briefing papers of a couple of pages or more in length that are packed up and sent home to be read overnight, with ministerial decisions handed down in the following day or two.
But the new chancellor demanded much shorter briefings, delivered to him two or three times a day for rapid decisions.
10.03am GMT
The pound has dropped this morning as the City braces for the government’s new growth and deficit forecasts.
Sterling has lost half a cent against the US dollar to $1.237, its lowest level of the week.
#Sterling lower ahead of #AutumnStatement - volatility ahead pic.twitter.com/kjaddU28ur
It has become evident that Sterling remains trapped by the ongoing Brexit uncertainty, with the future of the post-Brexit UK economy haunting investors.
9.50am GMT
Among those welcoming the government’s decision to ban letting agent fees is Olly Grender, the Lib Dem peer who has been pushing a private member’s bill through the Lords proposing just this.
My Bill here becoming a reality: pic.twitter.com/Mg8yqfiJii
Unlike people in the owner-occupied market, one in four renters moved home in 2013-14. Just under a third of renters have moved three times or more in the past five years, and just under a quarter of them in London. Each time they move, the up-front costs are often the greatest barrier of all ...
Costs vary from agent to agent and range from £40 to £780, with the average cost just under £400 per move. Many of those charges seem completely arbitrary. A credit check, for example, costs about £25 today, but some agencies charge a tenant £150 or more to carry one out. Marta, a lady who contacted the Debrief’s Make Renting Fair campaign, had asked to sign a three-year tenancy agreement. The agent said, “Fine, but you’ll have to pay three times the fee”: that was three times £360 just to re-sign. I spoke to a young woman this week who is in a two-bedroom flat. She is the main tenant and happily paid £150 for an inventory check and other things at the start of her tenancy, but every time her flatmate changes, the new tenant is charged a £150 for an inventory check which, of course, never happens—what a rip off!
Fees for tenants have already been successfully banned in Scotland following legislation in 1984, which was clarified in 2012. Research into its impact commissioned by Shelter shows that it has had only minimal side-effects for letting agents, landlords and renters, and the sector remains healthy. Only 17% of letting agents increased fees to landlords, and only 24% reported a small negative effect on their business. Not one agency manager interviewed said it had a large negative impact on their business, while 17% said they considered the change to be positive for their business.
9.43am GMT
We’re expecting Philip Hammond to announce several billion pounds of infrastructure spending, including:
What might the #AutumnStatement include: extra spending on much-needed infrastructure and housebuilding are likely to feature prominently.
More money for public investment today will merely avert previously planned cuts. Inaccurate to talk of fiscal stimulus. #AutumnStatement pic.twitter.com/DlanhyPssm
Related: What to look out for in the autumn statement
9.37am GMT
Ed Miliband lost the 2015 general election but today he will have the pleasure of seeing one of his proposals becoming government policy. Labour’s manifesto called for a ban on letting agent fees, which it said would save renters more than £600.
He has welcomed the fact that Philip Hammond has now adopted the idea, but wants the government to go further.
Banning letting fees welcome but cap on rent rises and 3 year tenancies key to give renters real security and affordability--see manifesto! https://t.co/SBeVaTPdzY
9.25am GMT
Iain Duncan Smith, who resigned as work and pensions secretary earlier this year after the budget because he objected to the way George Osborne, the then chancellor, was cutting universal credit while offering tax cuts to higher earners, has been urging ministers to scrap those cuts to universal credit, which are worth £3.4bn.
On the Today programme this morning he gave a cautious welcome to the news that the Treasury will ameliorate the impact of those cuts, by reducing the taper rate. But he said he wanted the government to go further.
I consider this really a down payment - this is not game over. This is really about the fact the chancellor has said, given the circumstances and given that we don’t know where we are going to be, necessarily, as we get into Brexit stuff over the next two years, he wants to give a strong indication that they want to help those who are struggling. Here’s a starter for this, let’s see where we go over the next two to three years.
9.17am GMT
The news that Philip Hammond will announce a rise in the minimum wage to £7.50 per hour from April 2017 has received a subdued welcome.
Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, argues that workers need more help:
“We welcome any pay rise for low-paid workers, especially now in these uncertain times with speculations about food and other prices set to rise.
The reality, however, is that a fifth of UK workers aren’t paid enough to live on. There’s still a gap between the Government minimum and our real Living Wage of 8.45 in the UK and 9.75 in London, which is based on what families need to earn to meet everyday costs.”
Don't fall for living wage hype: rate will rise 4 per cent to £7.50 — lower than the £7.64 expected earlier this year. #AutumnStatement
9.02am GMT
Hammond may insist he’s trying to help those of us who are ‘Just about Managing’.
But any new dollops of help for the Jams will be wiped away by the impact of the government’s existing austerity measures.
Before leaving No 11 this summer, George Osborne planned £13bn in benefit cuts and a further £16bn taken out of the budgets of “unprotected” Whitehall departments.
He also slashed spending for local councils. Given his ambition to balance the budget (by some as yet unspecified date), Mr Hammond is unlikely to drop any of those plans. So a working family that will earn a slightly higher minimum wage and a bit more next year on their universal credit will still have their tax credits frozen for the rest of this decade; their Sure Start centres will face the threat of closure and many of their children’s clubs and libraries could go to the wall. If Theresa May considers this helping, her version of hurting doesn’t bear thinking about.
Related: The Guardian view on Philip Hammond: he will take far more than he gives | Editorial
8.53am GMT
We’ve pulled together some key charts to get you up to speed ahead of the autumn statement:
Related: Five key charts you need to see before the autumn statement 2016
8.50am GMT
Last night, the Treasury released a series of picture of Philip Hammond perusing the autumn statement in a comfy armchair - and curiously perched by a window.
It reminded Baron Wood of Anfield, former advisor to Gordon Brown, of happier days:
Ten years ago I used to sneakily warm my bum on that radiator vent in 11 Downing Street too. pic.twitter.com/eGrn71YV8X
8.41am GMT
George Osborne has tweeted Hammond his support from the back benches:
Very best wishes to my friend @PHammondMP as he delivers his first Autumn Statement today & helps UK prepare for challenges ahead
8.38am GMT
Philip Hammond’s plan to clamp down on letting fees has sent shares in Britain’s property sector tumbling.
Foxtons shares plunged by 10% at the start of trading, with Countrywide (Britain’s biggest estate agent) shedding 5% and LSL Property down 6%.
Foxtons shares down as much as 11 percent in London -- no more nickel-and-diming agency fees for them.
Related: Chancellor to crack down on letting fees in Autumn statement
8.23am GMT
Exactly five months after the EU referendum, we’re finally going to get the first official estimate of the impact of the Brexit vote on the UK economy. And it may be a worrying picture.
Economists are certain that Philip Hammond will tear up the forecasts announced by George Osborne in March’s budget. Growth in 2017 could be revised to just 1.4% (or lower), down from 2.2%, which would be the biggest downgrade since the eurozone crisis.
8.10am GMT
Something odd happened in Westminster yesterday. At around 1pm political journalists started getting an email from the Treasury with a press release headed “Chancellor delivers on government pledge to support ordinary working class families”.
There is nothing unusual about the government briefing out selected titbits from the autumn statement and the budget in advance. But this read like The Full Monty: a £1.4bn affordable housing announcement, a (modest) increase in the “national minimum wage”, a measure to reduce the impact of planned cuts to universal credit (but only slightly), a ban on letting agents’ fees, tighter whiplash compensation rules intended to reduce the cost of car insurance by £40 a year, and investment in research and development.
Related: Autumn statement: Hammond to crack down on letting fees
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