Monday afternoon will see Philip Hammond’s last budget before the UK leaves the EU.
The budget will be delivered at 15:30 GMT and will announce the government’s plans for taxes and how it will spend public money.
What can we expect from the annual budget?
NHS
Another £20 billion will be pumped into healthcare. This will include a £2 billion increase in spending for mental health.
The current annual mental health spend is about £12 billion.
Earlier this month, Theresa May appointed the first ever minister for suicide prevention.
Shadow health minister, Barbara Keeley, is sceptical of the promised funding.
“If this announcement is simply money that’s already been promised, it will do little to relieve the severe pressures on mental health services that have built up because of this Tory Government’s relentless underfunding of the NHS,” she said.
“People with mental health conditions cannot afford to wait five years for meaningful action from this Government: too many are already waiting many months to access the treatment.”
Brexit
An analysis by the Centre for European Reform has found that the UK economy is 2.5% smaller now than if the British public voted to remain within the EU.
Speaking to Sky News about a potential no-deal scenario, Hammond said: “We would need to look at a different strategy and frankly we’d need to have a new Budget that set out a different strategy for the future.”
Tech Tax
The Chancellor is expected to announce plans to crack down on the amount of taxes paid by large tech companies including Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).
In his speech to the Conservative Party conference earlier this month, Hammond suggested a UK digital services tax if an international agreement could not be reached.
