Philip Hammond to ditch George Osborne’s plans for a budget surplus by 2020

Philip Hammond - credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/Press Association Images

Philip Hammond will use his first Tory conference speech as Chancellor to confirm he is ditching George Osborne’s central aim of achieving a budget surplus by 2020.

In a speech aimed at marking a departure from Osborne’s approach, Hammond will say he will oversee a “new plan for the new circumstances Britain faces” after the decision to leave the European Union.

"The fiscal policies that George Osborne set out were the right ones for that time,” Hammond will tell the audience in Birmingham.

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"But when times change, we must change with them. So we will no longer target a surplus at the end of this Parliament."

Theresa May sacked Osborne from the Government after becoming Prime Minister.

In other extracts of Hammond’s speech, he will commit to a programme of fiscal discipline but pledge to approach it in a “pragmatic way”.

“At the Autumn Statement in November I will set out our plan to deliver long-term fiscal sustainability, while responding to the consequences of uncertainty in the short-term and recognising the need for investment to build an economy that works for everyone,” he will add.

"A new plan for the new circumstances Britain faces."

A £5bn package to boost housebuilding, some of it funded by extra government borrowing, has been approved by Hammond today.