“We are committed to one major fiscal event a year, giving families and businesses due warning of tax and spending policies.”

That was the pledge in Labour’s manifesto ahead of the July 4 General Election.

And it was a most welcome promise.

In recent times, there have surely been far, far too many “fiscal events”.

We have had so-called emergency Budgets, a phrase that seemed to be adopted to make political capital by pretending the measures that were going to be introduced were urgent for the good of the country. In reality, these were not only driven by ideology but also damaging, making the word “emergency” somewhat more relevant but in pretty much the opposite way to that portrayed by the politicians.

There have been Budgets in the autumn and spring. And people have understandably become confused about whether something is a Spring Statement or an Autumn Statement or a full-scale Budget at various points, with the associated speech from whatever chancellor was delivering them tending to be loquacious in all instances.

And of course we had the unforgettable “mini-Budget” during the brief tenure of former prime minister Liz Truss and erstwhile chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in September 2022, which turned out to be a very major “fiscal event”.

The big problem is that, when chancellors have stood up to deliver statements short of a full Budget, they have not only failed to curb the length of their addresses but have also frequently been tempted to unveil some significant measures. What should be happening on such occasions is a brief update in light of the latest economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility, preferably without the incredible amount of political ideology ladled on in recent years.

This all brings us rather neatly to Rachel Reeves’ impending Spring Statement.

The Chancellor on October 30 last year delivered a very major Budget indeed.

Seismic policy moves were, of course, to be expected. After all, the Labour Government was taking over after 14 years of Conservative rule, and it would be difficult to over-emphasise the grimness of this economic period.

Labour........

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