Hammond’s 15-minute spring Budget promising little

Philip Hammond’s spring financial statement will last just 15 minutes and will contain no tax or spending announcements in what is being billed as the most boring fiscal event ever.

The Chancellor wants to make a clean break from the recent tradition of delivering two budgets each year and would prefer to have skipped the spring statement altogether, insiders say. He is, however, duty bound to make two statements per year because of a legal requirement for the Office for Budget Responsibility to publish twice-annual updates.

The slimmed-down event will merely be a brief response to the OBR forecasts.

Mr Hammond will address the Commons on March 13 – a Tuesday, rather than the traditional time slot of a Wednesday afternoon when the House is packed after Prime Minister’s Questions. He will not hold up his red box outside Number 11 for the traditional photo-call.

Mr Hammond will, however, announce a series of policy consultations which will be pored over for evidence of major announcements that might be coming down the line in the autumn budget.

The new-style spring event is part of a plan by the Chancellor to reduce the burden on businesses by having just one budget per year, rather than forcing them to spend precious time going through the process of preparing for and digesting budgets every six months.

At a time when businesses are preparing for Brexit, with less information about the final deal with Europe than they had wanted at this stage, the move has been broadly welcomed by bosses.

Cutting out one of his annual budgets will also have political advantages for Mr Hammond, as it will cut down the number of difficult negotiations he must have with the Prime Minister over public spending.

It will also minimise the number of chances for ministers to demand more money for their departments at a time when there is little cash to spare.

Alistair Darling, the former Labour chancellor, had hoped to return to a single annual budget in 2007 but had to abandon the idea because the financial crash necessitated regular updates on the state of the nation’s finances.