Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her 2026 spring statement on 3 March, the government has announced.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will prepare an economic and fiscal forecast for publication on the same day which Reeves will respond to in the statement.
The government said it is committed to deliver one major fiscal event a year at the Budget in the Autumn, so the “spring forecast will not make an assessment of the government’s performance against the fiscal mandate and will instead provide an interim update on the economy and public finances”.
The 2026 spring statement is likely to be another major political event as controversy continues after the chancellor’s Autumn Budget in November.
Reeves announced an extension to the freeze on income tax thresholds which led to criticsm that Labour has broken its general election manifesto pledge for not raise taxes for working people.
She was also accused of misleading the public with an “overly bleak” picture of the economy when she appeared to say the government would break its promise to not increase income tax rates due to the UK’s “weaker than previously thought” productivity.
It was revealed that the OBR actually provided her in September with forecasts showing that its productivity downgrade was offset by increases in real wages and inflation.
Prime minister Keir Starmer and the chancellor denied there was any misleading.
In another controversy, the OBR accidentally published details of Reeves’ Autumn Budget around a hour before she stood up in Parliament to announce it.