Pre-Budget report date announced

12 November 2008

The government has announced that the Chancellor will make his Pre-Budget Report speech to the House of Commons on 24 November 2008 at 3:30pm.

It is widely expected that Alistair Darling will use the report to prepare the way for tax cuts as the government looks to use fiscal policies to help stimulate the economy.

It is also thought the pre-Budget Report has been timed to allow the government to consider the outcome of talks at the financial summit in Washington this weekend.

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has already said that he hopes the summit will see a series of co-ordinated tax cuts made across the world's leading economies.

The announcement of the pre-Budget Report comes hard on the heels of the Bank of England's gloomy forecast that the recession will be longer and more severe than previously anticipated, lasting well into 2009.