George Osborne will use his Autumn Statement to announce a number of new spending commitments ahead of next year’s election. However, with reports suggesting that Government borrowing between April and October increased by £3.7 billion compared to last year, on the back of lower than expected tax returns, the Chancellor’s room for manoeuvre is limited.
Part 2 of the Lobbying Act goes live on September 19th. In danger of being entirely swamped out in the media by the referendum result this is in fact extremely important for public, third and indeed private sector organisations who now have to try and comply with a law which seeks to regulate their campaigning activity.
The all important question is what is and what is not a campaign according to the new Act, which was described as both messy and pernicious when it passed through Parliament earlier this year. Connect Communications have produced a full briefing paper – available here – but here is the short version!
Connect Intelligence’s Budget 2014 briefing looks at the tough decisions that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has to make ahead of the statement that will be one of the last chances to deliver significant economic reform ahead of the next election.
