Summary

'Right thing' for businesses and wealthiest to pay more - Reeves

Live Reporting

Edited by Marita Moloney

  1. Minimum wage to rise to £12.21 an hour next year

    Michael Race
    Business reporter, BBC News

    A woman wearing gloves wipes down a window.Getty Images

    Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed ahead of the budget that minimum wages will rise in April, with hourly rates for over-21s set to go up to £12.21 an hour.

    She says the pay boost marks a "significant step" towards achieving Labour's promise of a "genuine living wage" for workers.

    Employees aged 18 to 20 and apprentices will also see their minimum hourly pay increase.

    The government says more than three million workers will benefit, but firms warn the higher cost could mean they have to cut back on hiring.

  2. Your questions answered

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  3. What are the Budget day papers saying?

    The headline in the i reads, "Reeves hands 6.7% wage rise to lower earners as millions face 'painful' tax increases", while the headline in the Financial Times reads, "UK borrowing costs hit post-election on eve of Reeves' first Budget".

    A number of the papers carry previews of what to expect in today’s Budget.

    The i reports the news - confirmed yesterday - that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will raise the minimum wage by 6.7% from April next year, though adds that millions will be hit by further freezes to income tax thresholds as well as hikes to capital gains tax and employers' National Insurance.

    The Guardian says Reeves will deliver “what is expected to be the biggest tax-raising budget in history" but she believes "she can spare working people from the tax increases intended to plug the hole in the public finances".

    The Daily Telegraph says it understands the armed forces are set to receive a £3bn funding boost, meaning the proportion of GDP spent on the military will remain roughly stable at 2.3%. It says the move will "end fears that defence will bear the brunt” of spending cuts and will be “welcomed by military chiefs".

    And the Financial Times says that, on the eve of the Budget, the cost of the government's long-term borrowing hit its highest level since the election. The paper says investors have “braced themselves” because Reeves plans to fund new investment by relaxing the government's fiscal rules and increasing borrowing by more than £20bn a year.

  4. Don't expect any great surprises - today's will be a boffin's Budget

    Faisal Islam
    Economics editor

    A worker stacks his stock at Walthamstow Market in east LondonEPA

    Many workers and businesses will be keen to know how today's Budget will affect them

    There is no special Budget red box commissioned for Rachel Reeves when, mid-morning on Wednesday, she becomes the first woman to brandish one outside No 11 Downing Street.

    There will be no such frills, few jokes and don’t expect a big rabbit out of the hat.

    The number crunchers, bean counters, and abacus economists, so derided by Liz Truss, have taken back control. In that reused red box will be a boffin’s Budget.

    Indeed, it could be defined by being the polar opposite of everything in Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s infamous mini-Budget two years ago.

    This time the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has carried out its full 10-week, back-and-forth audit of both the public finances and all the tax and spend policy measures Reeves is planning, adding to what has felt like a drawn-out timetable of pre-Budget preparation.

  5. Remind me, what's the Budget?

    Each year, the chancellor of the exchequer - who is in charge of the government's finances - makes a Budget statement in the House of Commons.

    This outlines the government's plans for raising or lowering taxes and sets out its spending commitments for health, schools, police and other public services.

    We can also expect a report to be published by the Treasury alongside the Budget, which sets out further details about the measures and what they will cost.

    The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - which monitors government spending - will also assess the plans.

  6. Another one already?

    Emily Atkinson
    Live page editor

    Rachel Reeves sits at a desk writingTreasury

    Like us, Rachel Reeves was up late into the night preparing for the Budget

    Things have changed a lot since the last Budget in March.

    First of all, there’s a whole new government and chancellor.

    And there are positive signs that the economy is in a better place: inflation is coming down, a further cut to interest rates is widely expected, and growth forecasts are increasingly upbeat.

    Rachel Reeves' assessment isn’t quite so rosy. She’s claiming Labour inherited the "worst set of circumstances since the Second World War" following 14 years of Conservative rule.

    Against that backdrop, the pitch from the chancellor today will be two-fold:

    1. Plugging the so-called £22bn “black hole” in the nation’s finances
    2. Developing a plan for economic growth

    But how might this be achieved?

    Reeves is warning of “difficult decisions” and government sources say she’s looking to make tax rises and spending cuts to the value of £40bn.

    We’re still light on detail, but all will become clear when the chancellor delivers the Budget to MPs at 12:30 GMT.

    We'll be covering the whole thing here - settle in and stay tuned.