What is Rishi Sunak’s ‘summer economic update’?

Prepare for an official reckoning of the vast cost of the Treasury’s support for jobs and businesses during lockdown, writes John Rentoul

The chancellor faces his biggest challenge since landing the role (Getty)

Everyone has completely lost track now, because the annual Budget was moved from spring to autumn in 2017, when Philip Hammond had two Budgets. He then had a Budget in October 2018, but there was no Budget last year because of the election, so Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, delivered a post-election one in March this year.

It was overtaken by the coronavirus crisis as it was being delivered, and Sunak followed it up with three fiscal statements, of increasing drama and scale, over the next few days. So what is happening on Wednesday, after prime minister’s questions, is not called a Budget, but it is another Budget. The usual Budget remains pencilled in for the autumn (although in the past the Treasury’s definition of the season has stretched to early December).

This week’s statement is called a “summer economic update”. In other words, an interim Budget to adjust spending plans and taxes as the emergency coronavirus measures start to be wound down.