What is the Budget and why does it matter?

This week’s Budget was going to mark the start of big new spending on infrastructure. It now looks as if the revolution is being postponed, John Rentoul says

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will go through the motions, standing up and making a speech in parliament on Wednesday (AFP/Getty)

We weren’t supposed to be having a Budget this month. Philip Hammond moved the annual “fiscal event”, as Treasury wonks like to call it, from the spring to autumn, which the Treasury has long thought is the right time for it, to allow for legislation before the start of the tax year.

But when the Commons voted at the end of October for an early election, the Budget planned for November was postponed.

Now, a lot of what was going to be in the Budget has been postponed again. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will go through the motions, standing up and making a speech in parliament on Wednesday. But the uncertainty about coronavirus means that a lot of important decisions that he was going to announce will now be delayed until the “real” Budget in November (although on one recent occasion the Treasury’s definition of autumn managed to stretch to early December).