Budget 2014 preview

The Chancellor George Osborne is due to deliver his latest Budget on Wednesday 19th March 2014 at 12.30pm.

Here is our Budget 2014 preview.

The Budget speech usually lasts for around an hour before the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, has his opportunity to respond.

With the UK economy starting to recover, there is a reasonable chance that George Osborne will unveil some good news in his Budget.

We expect to see the Office for Budget Responsibility upgrade its growth forecast from 2.3% to 3.4%, in line with the latest forecasts from the Bank of England.

Recent predictions from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) expect the size of the UK economy to overtake its peak level reached before the global financial crisis in 2008. This is expected to happen sometime in the second quarter.

Despite this positive economic news, the Chancellor still faces a battle to bring the national debt and deficit under control. He is likely to continue on his path of austerity.

We already know that there will be a cut in corporation tax from 23% to 21%, effective from 1st April 2014. It will then fall to 20% on 1st April 2015.

We also already know that the income tax personal allowance will rise from £9,440 to £10,000 on 6th April 2014, at the start of the 2014/15 tax year.

As we get closer to the Budget on Wednesday, we expect to see more details being leaked, as the nature of coalition politics means leaks are more common.

We have already blogged about our Budget predictions and would not be surprised to see some juicy measures, designed to sway voters ahead of the general election in 2015.

Our Live Budget Blog will be posted on Wednesday morning and updated throughout the day with details of the key personal finance measures announced in the Budget, along with our analysis.

We will also be producing a Budget Briefing Note, available for free download, which aims to provide a concise summary of the main announcements along with our initial analysis.

What do you expect to see contained with the Budget this year?

Photo credit