Fiscal events update: Comprehensive Spending Review and Budget

While we headed into the Autumn expecting two fiscal events – a Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and an Autumn Budget – the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic meant that there was a chance they wouldn’t happen. And last week, following the Winter Economy Statement, the government confirmed that the Autumn Budget has been cancelled. What this means for the Finance Bill, and for the open tax consultations (Business Rates, R&D tax credit) is unclear. What we do know is that the government has to deliver a Budget per financial year (by the end of March 2021) so we are likely to start next year the same as this year: with a full Budget.

While the Budget has been cancelled, the CSR is still set to take place. And there is a little more certainty around the CSR: it must take place before 1 December 2020 for local authority funding reasons (and because the then