This is from the BBC’s Andrew Neil.

Leave Means Leave has, curiously, chosen not to challenge the OBR analysis of the impact of Brexit in its autumn statement reaction (see 5.44pm), but Patrick Minford, co-chair of Economists for Brexit, has taken it on. He has put out this statement.

The OBR’s report issued today contains a number of assumptions around the impact of Brexit which simply follows the path of countless other establishment bodies, which have assumed a pessimistic outlook for the UK economy outside the EU, based on bad economic policy-making . Whilst it acknowledges the fact that the decision of the government’s chosen path is uncertain, it then applies what amounts to an arbitrary Brexit penalty on the UK economy without any proper justification. Why does it assume lower productivity, a spending slowdown due to uncertainty and lower immigration?

The work of Economists for Brexit has shown in each of these cases the reverse to be true. Our forecasts show that there is a positive impact of being outside of the single market and embracing free trade under WTO rules, creating an additional 4% GDP over the long term; recent outturns for the second and third quarters have shown clearly that there is no uncertainty effect; and on immigration our estimates are that unskilled migrants cost a total of £6.6 billion a year. Clearly, better control of unskilled workers, whilst continuing to encourage skilled migration can only have a positive economic impact. .

These bodies tried to forecast economic disaster based on uncertainty before, in the months leading up to and just after the referendum, when uncertainty was at its highest. Yet there is no sign that there was any economic effect. So it is illogical in the extreme to forecast further disaster owing to uncertainty, just as the picture is becoming clearer. Of course it is true that if bodies like the OBR push out continual gloomy statements, if Downing Street gives no direction and if, when it does take a lead, takes Britain down the worst possible economic path then all this could come true. But, just as they did in the spring and the summer, they are mistaking the very worst outcome for a sensible forecast.

Ashwin Kumar, chief economist at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, says poor households faces a tough 2017, with inflation likely to devour wage rises.

Previously announced benefit cuts will wipe out the benefits announced today, Kumar explains:

“Many families will gain by modest amounts of a few pounds a week from the reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate and the rise in the income tax personal allowance. However these gains will be dwarfed by much bigger cuts to work allowances imposed by George Osborne in April this year.

A couple with two children each earning £25,000 a year will see a benefit of £588 a year from the income tax and universal credit taper changes, but will lose £1,308 from the benefit freeze and the cut in Universal Credit work allowances.

John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, fears that charities will face an increased burden as economic growth slows....

“We know that during uncertain times charities are increasingly relied upon to support those in most need. In recent years charities have experienced rising demand for their services while resources have been increasingly stretched.

More here:

Here is the comment on the autumn statement sent out by Leave Means Leave, the successor to Leave.EU. It is from John Longworth, Leave Means Leave’s co-chair. We’re quoting it in full. It does not mention the OBR analysis of the impact of Brexit at all.

The chancellor has made a good start on the road to making the British economy the best in the world.

Investing in infrastructure and research and development, improving access to finance – particularly for tech companies which ensures they do not have to sell out to foreign competitors, and funding for the Oxford – Cambridge expressway are all very positive announcements.

This is a solid base on which to build and crystalise the huge benefits Brexit brings to our country.

Through signature ready trade deals, tariff reduction and removal, deregulation that will feel like a tax cut for UK businesses and real tax cuts - Brexit will enable the UK economy to thrive.

The fringe benefit of Brexit is that the chancellor will have to make the UK the best country in the world to do business.

His task now is to build confidence in the UK economy. He has a golden opportunity to improve further the strong economic forecasts and make Britain thrive, thanks to Brexit.

Further OBR detail shows that the 80,000 a year reduction in net migration expected to follow the Brexit vote will cost Britain £16bn over the next five years.

The OBR tables show that the reduction in net migration will come as a result of a tighter net migration policy and the UK becoming a less attractive place for migrants will cost the UK economy. It estimates that cut in migration will cost the UK economy £0.8bn in 2016/17 rising to £5.9bn a year by 2020/21. This is a total of £16bn over the next five years.

David Finch from the Resolution Foundation says the autumn statement reverses only 7% of the losses affecting the poorest half of households during this parliament.

Caroline Lucas, the Green party’s co-leader, criticised Philip Hammond for not mentioning climate change in the autumn statement. She said:

With Trump’s election this could have been a moment for Britain to become a world-leader in the fight against catastrophic climate change but, instead, we see little evidence of a commitment to facing up to the greatest challenge of our times. Indeed, it is shameful that the chancellor failed to even mention climate change in his speech. By caving into the motor lobby and freezing fuel duty again for the seventh year in a row the government has made a mockery of the fact that it is the hottest year on record and condemned us to more carbon emissions and deadly pollution.

And here is Mark Reckless, a member of the Welsh assembly, responding to the autumn statement on behalf of Ukip.

Despite the fearsome predictions of remain supporters, the overall prognosis for the economy is good, as we knew it would be. The official forecast is that unemployment in 2020 after we have left the EU will be just 860,000. This administers the last rites to the infamous claim that 3m jobs would be lost if we left the EU.

We are borrowing too much, £68bn this year, £59bn next, and £122bn more than planned across the forecast period. The government has talked tough on austerity but failed to match its words with deeds.

Every month the government delays Brexit costs the exchequer over a billion pounds. UKIP says just get on with it.

Here is Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, on the autumn statement.

This is a government that is just about managing. The official figures have revealed a £220bn Brexit black hole- hundreds of billions taken out our economy when we need it most. Given how bad the outlook is, it’s no wonder the chancellor doesn’t want to have to do another autumn statement.

The OBR figures forecast a rise a unemployment and a fall in living standards.

We are seeing a drop in tax receipts of £8.2bn over the next two years alone. That’s enough to fund over 330,000 nurses. In response the chancellor offered nothing but reheated headlines and recycled announcements.

The autumn statement was greeted with dismay within the education sector, which has been vociferously complaining about severe and worsening funding pressures in schools, with courses being cut, jobs lost and some sixth forms forced to close.

In contrast to George Osborne’s budget in March where education was at the forefront of his announcements, education was barely mentioned in the statement, bar the chancellor’s confirmation of new capital funding to support the expansion of existing grammar schools - first announced in September.

Treasury documents released after the statement said the government was committed to spending £50m in each year from 2017-18 on its grammar school expansion plan as part of its promise to ensure every child had access to a good school place. School leaders were unimpressed.

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the chancellor had failed to address the cash crisis in schools.

The situation is so serious that some are struggling to deliver a full curriculum, courses are having to be cut and some sixth forms are closing.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, expressed similar disappointment.

We know that school budgets are being pushed beyond breaking point. Almost nine out of ten school leaders are telling us that a rise in national insurance employer contributions and pension contributions are the key reasons behind financial pressures in their school.

Freezing budgets at a time of rising costs is no protection at all. Capital investment in grammar schools is the wrong priority, and a distraction from the most important issues in education.

Our economics editor Larry Elliott says that the autumn statement contained some important self truths about the UK economy:

Philip Hammond’s message was stark and clear. The result of the EU referendum in June means the economy has arrived at a reality checkpoint. Deep-seated weaknesses will be exposed as the government negotiates a Brexit divorce between now and 2019.

The chancellor was candid about Britain’s woefully poor productivity record. He admitted that infrastructure was deficient. There was no attempt to disguise the fact that there is a prosperity gap between London and other major cities.

He used his autumn statement to address some of these long-term issues rather than to provide immediate help to the “just about managing” households, the so-called Jams, championed by the prime minister.

To be sure, there was the pre-announced increase in the national living wage, the inevitable freezing of fuel duties for a seventh straight year and a change to universal credit to make the cuts announced by his predecessor less severe. Most of George Osborne’s welfare savings will go ahead, however, with Hammond deciding the best way to help the Jams is through an economy that generates higher-paid jobs.

He has also left money in the bank in case he needs it during what are certain to be tricky times for the economy during the two-year article 50 process....

More here:

The Welsh government’s finance secretary, Mark Drakeford, said the extra funding for Wales promised by the chancellor went some way to restoring cuts to its capital budget over recent years.

The autumn statement included more than £400m of additional capital funding for Wales between 2016-17 and 2020-21 and £35.8m of revenue funding between over the same period. Drakeford said:

As a government, we have been clear about the importance of investing in Wales’ infrastructure – in these uncertain times this is more important than ever. This is why we called on the UK government to boost investment to support economic growth.

Although today’s announcement doesn’t go as far as we had hoped, this extra investment goes some way to restoring the cuts we have seen to our capital budget over recent years.

Last month the Labour-led government published its investment priorities for the next four years. This included delivering an M4 relief road in south Wales and create Metro systems in the south and north.

Big decisions on energy have been bumped to a future budget. The fate of a future cap on subsidies for green energy such as offshore windfarms is now due in the spring budget next year, the autumn statement says.

The chancellor said a carbon tax which is driving coal power plants to close would be kept at current levels until 2020, but failed to set out its long term plan (something George Osborne promised in the spring that this budget would do). As some commentators pointed out, today offered no clarity for the energy sector beyond the short term.

Any promise of a crackdown on energy companies, as teased by Theresa May in her conference speech and recently by business secretary Greg Clark, will also wait for another day. “We will look carefully over the coming months” at the retail energy market, Hammond said.

And there’s no news of the government’s long-awaited plan on how it’ll meet its carbon targets - all we hear from the autumn statement is that officials will keep on chatting to “stakeholders” to develop the blueprint.

The plot thickens.... the Department for Business is now briefing that there’s NO new contingent liability with Nissan. So why wouldn’t the Treasury tell the OBR that?!

The TUC says the autumn statement shows working people will lose £1,000 a year by 2020. TUC economist Geoff Tilly explains in a blog:

Overall real earnings are now expected to rise by only £23 a week between 2015 and 2020; at the budget they were expected to rise by £41. This difference of £18 a week amounts to nearly £1000 a year (£955).

And here is a statement from the TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.

Today’s OBR forecast shows that the average annual wage will be £1,000 lower in 2020 than predicted at the Budget. And this is on top of wages still having not recovered to their 2007 levels.

This is yet another blow to ordinary working people’s standard of living. And far from being focussed on ‘just about managing’ families, this shows up the government’s plans as inadequate.

The government’s refusal to disclose what, if anything, it has promised Nissan about Brexit is causing quite a row.

The Independent’s Rob Merrick has asked the OBR whether the government has actually broken the law; the watchdog thinks not, but is keen that everyone knows about the Treasury’s reticence:

Economist Alastair Smith, the former vice-chancellor of Sussex University, suspects Nissan has indeed been promised some sort of secret financial help (in case it suffers from Brexit, perhaps through new tariffs on exports to Europe)

Tax specialist lawyer Jolyon Maugham is also rather surprised by the government’s stance:

The OBR says that if it hadn’t been for the Brexit vote their projection for annual net migration to Britain would have been 80,000 a year higher at 312,000 in 2017 falling to 265,000 by 2021 and contributed around 0.2 percentage points each year to potential growth in the economy. They estimate that this net migration factor alone accounts for 0.9 percentage points of their judgement that the EU referendum has reduced potential output by 2.4 percentage points.

Instead they assume that annual net migration, currently running at 330,000, will fall to 232,000 in 2017 and 185,000 by 2021. This is still far higher than Theresa May’s declared object of getting net migration down below 100,000 a year.

The OBR asked the government to detail how its post-Brexit migration policy will operate but unsurprisingly ministers did not feel able to share any further detail and so the OBR felt unable to make any lower assumption for net migration: “In the absence of more policy detail and evidence of how much weaker the ‘pull’ effect (of Britain becoming a less attractive destination) we do not think it would sensible to move to a lower assumption now.”

Drive, baby, drive - that was the message from chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn budget statement, with more money paving the way to new roads and a freeze on fuel tax. These steamroller the funds offered for electric cars.

That’s a problem, as the UK already has an air pollution crisis that causes tens of thousands of early deaths - more traffic will only make it worse. Furthermore, rising transport emissions are one of the biggest obstacles to the nation meeting its legal targets for cutting carbon emissions.

But then neither climate change or the environment merited a single mention in Hammond’s speech. Nor did green energy, support for which is set to fall off a cliff in 2021, or energy efficiency measures for the UK’s many leaky homes.

The chancellor extolled the benefits of certainty to business and Britain’s expertise in “disruptive technologies”, but these claims will feel very hollow to those trying to build a clean, green economy fit for the 21st century. They were almost entirely ignored.

More here:

British workers face a sharp earnings squeeze next year, says the OBR, as the weaker pound drives up inflation.

The watchdog predicts that inflation will wipe out almost all pay rises in 2017.

The fall in the pound will squeeze households’ real incomes by pushing up import prices.

We expect the pound’s fall to add almost 2 per cent to the level of consumer prices over the next two years, relative to our March assumption. Real earnings growth will consequently fall close to zero next year. That squeeze is expected to hold back real private consumption growth in 2017 and 2018.

Wages are currently rising by around 2.4% per year; and the OBR expects inflation to hit 2.5% in 2018 (corrected)

This chart, from Torsten Bell of Resolution Foundation, shows how workers will take home £16 per week less than expected in 2020-21 (due to higher inflation and weaker pay growth). That’s £830 per year.

And in the Commons George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor, told his successor that he was right to “keep his powder dry” (ie, not increase spending too much now) because of the risk that he might need to revive the economy in the future. He said:

Can I warmly congratulate my friend and successor on a strong statement and an assured delivery. The independent OBR has given us a very sober assessment of the economic and borrowing challenges that Britain faces and the chancellor is right to keep his powder dry.

In the Commons Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, told Philip Hammond that, although Hammond told the Tory conference that people did not vote for Brexit to become poorer, the OBR is saying that is exactly what they did vote for. Miliband said:

[Hammond] said at the Tory party conference that the British people did not vote to become poorer. The OBR tells us on p19 that £58bn of the worsening in the public finances is due to the Brexit decision. Isn’t it a salutary warning to us about the decisions we take in the coming months and isn’t it a very strong argument for us to remain as close as possible to our largest trading area the single market and inside not outside the customs union?

Hammond responded by saying that Britain would try to get the “closest possible trading arrangement” with the EU.

At PMQs Jeremy Corbyn demonstrated quite effectively how health spending is likely to be one of the key issues over coming years. (See 12.22pm.)

But the autumn statement had more or less nothing to say on health. In his speech Philip Hammond had one sentence about the NHS, confirming that the government will back the NHS five-year forward plan.

The autumn statement document does not mention the NHS at all. The word health does appear five times, but three of those are references to the health of the economy. The secretary of state for health gets one mention, and there is a single reference to the devolution of the work and health programme to city regions.

The Office for Budget Responsibility will probably be accused by Brexiteers of being overly pessimistic about the economic impact of Brexit.

But in its report (pdf) it says that things could get even worse than it is forecasting, because is it not assuming mass lay-offs and consumer spending drying up, even though these are both possibilities. (We’ve put the key sentence in bold.)

Given the uncertainty surrounding the choices and trade-offs that the Government may have to make, and the consequences of different outcomes, we have not attempted to predict the precise end result of the negotiations. Instead we have made a judgement – consistent with most external studies – that over the time horizon of our forecast any likely Brexit outcome would lead to lower trade flows, lower investment and lower net inward migration than we would otherwise have seen, and hence lower potential output. In time the performance of the economy will also be affected by future choices that the Government makes about regulatory and other policies that are currently determined at the European level. These could move in either a growth-enhancing or a growth-impeding direction.

In the near term, as the negotiations get under way, we assume that GDP growth will continue to slow into next year as uncertainty leads firms to delay investment and as consumers are squeezed by higher import prices, thanks to the fall in the pound. But we do not assume that firms shed jobs more aggressively or that consumers increase precautionary saving, both of which are downside risks if the path to Brexit is bumpy.

Here are verdicts on the autumn statement from the Guardian’s panel, Matthew d’Ancona, Martin Kettle, and Gaby Hinsliff.

And here is an extract from Martin’s article.

Paradoxically, however, today was just about the one day when something like a budgetary statement was in order from the chancellor. That’s because of one thing alone – Brexit. Hammond’s statement was a chance to make a first big assessment of the impact of Brexit on the UK economy. The verdict is, without question, bleak. Growth is down, borrowing has to rise, and the dream of a surplus has been deferred to “as soon as practicable”, ie never.

Hammond’s other big problem is that tax take is falling. All those references in his speech to sustaining the tax base are Treasury code for the fact that Britain has continued to become a low wage, tax avoiding and increasingly unequal economy since 2010, in which there’s not enough public money to pay for public spending. That demands either more taxes or less spending, or both. Hammond has allowed himself to be boxed in on both options. But he gave a very important signal that pensions – and, less importantly in budgetary terms, the aid budget – will be cut after 2020, and the pension triple lock will be broken.

Iain Wright MP has spotted that the OBR fears UK economic productivity could be weaker after Brexit:

Here’s that OBR scorecard in full:

You can find all the autumn statement documents here, on the Treasury website.

We’re collecting all the key points from Hammond’s statement here:

Hammond says this autumn statement responds to the challenges the country faces. It responds to the challenge of the country living beyond its means. And it provides helps to those who need it.

And that’s it. Hammond has finished.

Hammond says this is his first autumn statement - and his last.

He is abolishing the autumn statement.

No other major economy makes hundreds of changes every year.

Next year’s spring budget will be the final spring budget. After that there will be an autumn budget, well before the new financial year starts.

And then there will be a spring statement, responding to the forecasts from the OBR, but no major fiscal event.

He says he will not make significant changes twice a year just for the sake of it.

This brings the UK into line with best practice, recommended by the IMF and others.

Hammond says he is cancelling the proposed fuel duty rise for the seventh successive year.

This will save the average driver £130 a year, and the average van driver £350 a year.

Hammond says the government will consider measures to help savers. It is proposing a savers bond for them. It will pay 2.2% interest.

Hammond turns to letting agents. Their fees have spiralled, despite attempts to regulate them. This is wrong, he says. The government will ban fees for tenants.

And it will ban pension cold-calling, he says.

Hammond says he can go further to help families on low wages.

Universal credit is an important reform, he says.

He says, having considered arguments from Iain Duncan-Smith, David Burrowes and others, he has decided to cut the taper rate. That is effectively a tax cut worth £700m by 2022.

Hammond says the government has given a pay rise to low-paid workers through the “national living wage”.

He says he is making capital available for new grammar schools.

But more needs to be done, he says.

The “national living wage” will increase from £7.20 per hour to £7.50 in April next year.

Hammond turns to the personal allowance.

It will rise to £11,500 in April, he says.

Since 2010 28m people have had their income tax cut, and 4m people have been taken out of income tax altogether.

He says the government is still committed to taking the allowance up to £12,500 by the end of this parliament. And the 40p threshold will rise to £50,000 over the same period.

Hammond says the government has done more than any other to tackle tax avoidance and evasion.

The tax gap is one of the lowest in the world, he says.

He says there will be a new penalty for people who use a tax avoidance scheme HMRC closes down.

All these tax avoidance measures will save £2bn over the forecast period, he says.

Hammond says from April 2017 employers and employees who use benefits in kind schemes will pay the same tax as everyone else. But there will be exceptions, including for childcare and cycling.

Hammond says insurance premium tax will rise from 10% to 12%

And he says the government will change the rules on whiplash compensation, saving drivers £40 a year on average.

Hammond says he wants Britain to remain the number one destination for business.

He knows how much business values certainty. So the government will stick to the business tax plans set out in the March budget.

He says the communities secretary will lower the transitional relief cap. That’s complicated, but it’s good news, he says.

And rural rate relief will be increase to 100%, giving businesses in rural areas a boost.

He says the government will keep its commitments to protect budgets it said it would protect.

But in the next parliament it will have to tackle the challenges of an ageing population. So budgets will be reviewed at the next spending review.

Hammond says, having run two big spending departments, he came to this job with fixed views on departmental spending.

He wants £1bn from savings to be refocused in priority areas.

Hammond says public spending has a proportion of GDP has fallen to 40%.

He says the government has demonstrated that controlling spending is compatible with having world-class services.

Departmental spending limits will remain in place.

And in 2021-22 they will rise with inflation.

But the Ministry of Justice will get extra funding for another 2,500 prison officers.

Hammond says £102 money from Libor fines will be distribute to service charities.

And money from the Tampon tax fund will go to women’s charities.

Hammond says he has deliberately avoided making this statement a list of specific projects.

But he can announce a plan to protect Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham, a model for the house in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The government will provide a £7.5m grant to help preserve this piece of northern heritage, he says.

Hammond says devolution remains at the government’s approach. A new city deal for Stirling is being negotiated. This means every city in Scotland will be on course to have one.

City regions will get new borrowing powers, he says.

London will get £3.15bn for 90,000 affordable homes. And the adult education budget will be devolved to London.

Former Labour advisor Baron Wood tweets:

Hammond says for too long investment has been focused on London.

No other major economy has such a gap between the productivity of its capital, and its other cities.

He says the government will publish a strategy to address this. An evaluation will allow the east Midlands rail hub to go ahead.

Hammond says this investment will provide the backbone to the government’s industrial strategy.

He will double UK Export’s financial capacity.

He will take a step towards the problem of UK start-ups being snapped up by larger competitors by investing £400m, with a view to unlocking £1bn of investment.

Hammond says he has written to the National Infrastructure Commission asking for proposals for spending in the next decade.

The govenrment will commit to spending between 1% and 1.2% of GDP from 2020 on economic infrastructure.

By comparison, it is spending 0.8% now, he says.

The UK needs world-class digital infrastructure.

He wants the UK to be a world-leader in 5G, he says.

More than £1bn will be invested in digital infrastructure.

From April there will be100% business rates relief on investment in new fibre.

Hammond says the transport secretary will set out more details over the coming weeks.

Hammond says there will be an extra £1.1bn invested in English transport networks, where small investments can often achieve big wins.

Some of this will go on rail, which Jeremy Corbyn will welcome, he says.

Hammond says for many the goal of home ownership remains out of reach.

The challenge of delivering housing where it is not affordable is not a new one. But this is an urgent challenge.

The government will soon publish a housing white paper.

Often the local impact in infrastructure is an obstacle to new housing. So infrastructure spending will be focused where it can encourage new development.

He says he can also announce new funding for housing.

He wants a housing market that works for everyone, he says.

Hammond says the government will form a new national productivity investment fund worth £23bn. It will focus on innovation and infrastructure.

Investment in R&D will rise by £2bn a year by 2020.

He says in the autumn statement he will prioritise high-value investment in infrastructure.

He says the government’s hard-won credibility on spending means it can fund this from extra borrowing, while funding everything else in the statement from taxation and spending cuts.

The UK lags the US and Germany by 30 points in productivity, he says.

This means it takes a German worker four days to make what a British worker makes in five, he says.

That means longer hours and lower pay for British workers.

Here are three fiscal rules which Hammond has just proposed:

Hammond jokes about the representations he has received from Labour.

And he has received representations from other bodies, he says.

Debt will peak at over 90% of GDP, he says.

Hammond announces the borrowing figures.

It will be £68.2bn this year, and £59bn next year, he says.

Then the figures are:

2018-19 - £46bn

2019-20 - £21bn

2020-21 - £20.7bn

2021-22 - £17.2bn

He says borrowing will be 3.5% this year, falling to 0.7% by 2021-22.

Hamond pays tribute to George Osborne.

He says he will be no better at proving rabbits from hats (Osborne’s speciality) than Boris Johnson is at retrieve balls from the back of scrums (a joke about Johnson not becoming prime minister.)

Hammond says the Brexit decision makes more urgent than ever the need to tackle the economy’s weaknesses.

He says the government resolves to confront those challenges head on.

It wants an economy that works for everyone, and where every part of the country is part of national success.

The Conservative Charlie Elphicke asks about fuel duty. Fuel prices go up like a rocket, when the oil price rises, but fall like a feather when it goes down, he says.

May says Elphicke should wait for the autumn statement.

Asked to rule out any more referendums this parliament, May ruled out a second referendum on the EU. But she did not rule out a second referendum on Scottish independence (although she has in the past said she is not in favour of one).

May says austerity is about living within our means. When we talk about support for the homeless, we must remember that taxpayers pay for that support, she says. And many of them are struggling.

John Whittingdale, the Conservative former culture secretary, welcomes the expected £1bn for superfast broadband in the autumn statement. May says investment in this field is crucial.

At least three former chancellors are in the Commons to watch Philip Hammond’s debut fiscal statement:

ITV’s Robert Peston can see the funny side of #AutumnStatement.

From Sky’s Beth Rigby

This is a sign that today’s autumn statement might be less dramatic than usual:

Corbyn says the home in the Panorama programme was understaffed. He says poorly-paid staff should not be blamed. A warning from the CQC is not enough. Has the government considered the impact of getting patients to have to take their passports to hospitals to get care. Some 9.5m people do not have passports.

May says over the course of this parliament the government will be spending £500bn. She says there has been a problem with people turning up to access services but not paying for them.

Corbyn says Sir Simon Stevens said recently the next few years would be the toughest for NHS spending. At some point health spending per person will be cut for the first time. There are fewer mental health nurses. Waiting times are getting longer. And 1m people are not getting the social care they need. Shouldn’t social care be properly funded?

May says billions of pounds extra are going into the NHS. There is a record level of money going into mental health. What Corbyn forgets to mention is that we can only afford to pay for the NHS if we have a strong economy creating wealth. That is what we will hear from the chancellor in a few moments.

Corbyn say health spending trebled under Labour. And levels of satisfaction reached a record high. He says the number of people in hospital because of lack of care has gone up by one third.

May repeats what the government has done. She asks which government put the triple lock in place for pensioners.

Corbyn says the precept is a drop in the ocean compared to what is necessary. MPs will have been appalled by this week’s Panorama about a care scandal. He asks what the goverment will do to protect residents in the homes featured.

May says everyone is appalled by terrible treatment like this. The CQC is able to step in, she says. But there is more that can be done, she says. The care minister will write to the CQC to see what more can be done.

Jeremy Corbyn asks about the governments plans for the NHS, which he says hide cuts worth £22bn, according to the BMA. He says the BMA’s Mark Porter says this is a mess. Where is he wrong?

Theresa May says savings will be reinvested within the NHS. The government is providing not just £8bn for the NHS, but £10bn.

Corbyn points out that the health committee says the figure is £4.5bn, not £10bn. He says more than 1m people do not get the social care they need. There has been an increase in admissions from older patient. Margaret wrote to him about how her mother suffered two falls because of lack of care. What is the government doing to improve social care.

May says the government has introduced the Better Care Fund and a social precept for local authorities. What did Labour do? They said they would deal with social care in the 1997 manifesto. There were various reviews, but by 2009 they were still on a green paper. Thirteen years and they did nothing.

From the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman

This is from the Evening Standard’s Kate Proctor.

The devolved government in Belfast’s Finance Minister has called for a “Niagra Falls stimulus” of extra infrastructure spending for Northern Ireland in the region.

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, the Sinn Fein Minister, said the government needs to invest in infrastructure “to give the economy a jolt.”

The Minister also called today for “austerity to be binned.”

Northern Ireland expects to gain an extra £40 million from the Chancellor’s autumn statement, which will be invested in improved road, rail and other local infrastructure.

This is from the Sun’s Steve Hawkes.

PMQs will be starting shortly. We will be covering the Theresa May/Jeremy Corbyn exchanges, and any autumn statement related questions, but not the whole thing. As the former Labour adviser Theo Bertram says, PMQs before the autumn statement is normally a bit of a non-event.

One of the City’s leading fund managers, Toby Nangle of Columbia Threadneedle, hopes that Philip Hammond will produce new measures to boost investment.

He tells Sky News that:

The real issue of concern for us is the investment side. With Brexit looming over, the surveys have been pointing down. So anything he can do on that side would be quite helpful.

Nangle believes the government should exclude infrastructure spending from its budget surplus targets. This would allow it to invest in long-term projects that boost productivity (and growth) in the long term, without having to slash day-to-day spending.

Labour have been pushing this idea for years - and Nangle says it makes sense:

A shift away from targeting actual budget surpluses to primary surpluses is a very sensible thing that most people will support.

It facilitates investment - and that investment is really what we need as a country.

It stops you pitting your health budget against your HS2 budget out of the same pot.

Here is ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, on the autumn statement.

Theresa May has welcomed Philip Hammond’s “prudent” approach to running Britain’s economy as he prepares to deliver his first autumn statement, reviving a favourite catchphrase of Gordon Brown’s.

Hammond set out his plans for his first set-piece parliamentary event as chancellor to his fellow ministers at Wednesday morning’s cabinet meeting.

He is expected to announce sharply weaker economic forecasts and reveal the full extent of the deterioration in the public finances likely to be caused by Britain’s exit from the European Union.

The Treasury has already announced a series of modest giveaways, including a partial reversal of deep cuts to in-work benefits.

The chancellor is expected to confirm a ban on letting fees for millions of families who are being charged hundreds of pounds by agencies to cover the supposed administrative costs of renting.

Hammond is also expected to announce an increase in the “national living wage” from £7.20 to £7.50 an hour from April 2017, although this is slightly below the £7.60 figure that the independent Office for Budget Responsibility estimates would be necessary for it to stay on course to match the pledge of £9 an hour by 2020.

Hammond told colleagues his approach was “focused on preparing and supporting the economy as we write a new chapter in the country’s history”, and on tackling the productivity shortfall which means Britain’s workers are “working longer hours, for less pay”, compared to similar countries.

Hammond’s colleagues, as is traditional, banged the table in approval of his plans, the spokeswoman said.

Fiscal prudence, and tackling Britain’s long-term productivity shortfall, were key themes of the Treasury’s work during Brown’s stint as chancellor.

May’s spokeswoman also highlighted the fact that Hammond’s colleagues had welcomed the way he and Treasury officials had worked constructively with other departments; and the renewed focus on the long-term weaknesses of the economy.

Hammond has consciously sought to reject the meddling approach of former chancellors, and insiders say he will allow his colleagues more leeway over how they spend their budgets. He is also expected to deliver a slimmed-down statement, with few gimmicks.

This is what Theresa May told the cabinet about the autumn statement, according to Number 10.

This is an autumn statement which will deliver on the government’s commitment to build an economy which works for everyone and sets the economy on the right path for the long term.

This is a balanced and prudent autumn statement which will make clear Britain is open for business and the government is on the side of ordinary working people struggling to make ends meet.

That really was a muted appearance by Philip Hammond on Downing Street; he looked more like a man heading to the shops for some milk than a chancellor preparing to update the nation on its finances....

Sky News’ Faisal Islam hoped for a bit more...

It may be a sign that Hammond isn’t planning any fireworks today, and may be keen to downplay the importance of the autumn statement.

Here is another profile of Philip Hammond, from Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt.

It’s very good, but it contains rather more information about the teenage Hammond than we need to know. Apparently he was a good kisser.

It also contains this insight into what Hammond thinks of Boris Johnson and Liam Fox.

Philip Hammond has just emerged from Number 11 Downing Street, clutching a copy of autumn statement.

But he’s not hanging around for photos -- the chancellor heads straight to his ministerial limo for the short drive to the House of Commons.

As well as reading your comments below the line we’d like to hear from readers who will be affected by the chancellor’s announcements today via a dedicated callout.

Is your family “just managing” or are you a pensioner struggling to get by? Maybe you earn close to the government’s “national living wage” and have comments on its implications for you? Tell us what the autumn statement will do for you by clicking on the link – you can share your story anonymously if you prefer – and we’ll use a selection in our ongoing coverage.

Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation, has been tweeting about the Treasury’s decision to change the taper rates to ameliorate the impact of universal credit cuts.

The Resolution Foundation is a thinktank set up to investigate the problems facing low and middle earners - or LMEs, as they used to be called. They are more or less exactly the same group now called “Jams” by the government - people just about managing.

Jeremy Corbyn has been tweeting about the autumn statement.

Labour have just published some prebuttal of the autumn statement.

They say that poorer families will still be worse off, even if Philip Hammond cut the taper rate on universal credit, from 65p to 63p in the pound (meaning families lose less benefits if they do more paid work).

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell says:

“Some working families, who will have lost as much as £2,500 a year, might only be getting back as little as £150 in this Statement.

And here’s the maths:

• Following the changes to the UC taper rate, a working couple with two children, both working on the National Living Wage (NLW), could now be £800 worse off instead of around £1,100 worse off in 2017-18 as a result of cuts to UC work allowances.
  
• Following the changes to the UC taper rate, a lone parent with two children earning £25,000 per annum might be around £2,300 worse off instead of £2,500 worse off in 2017-18 as a result of cuts to UC work allowances.
  

Roughly £50m has been wiped off the combined value of Foxtons and Countrywide this morning.

Both company’s shares are still down sharply today, thanks to the looming clampdown on tenancy fees. This rather undermines the claim that these fees aren’t a lucrative source of easy income for estate agents.

Here is another of the pictures that Philip Hammond posed for yesterday, for use in advance of today’s autumn statement. Like the one at 8.50am, it seems intended to convey a sense of calm poise.

And it is no surprise to see that Hammond is a tidy desk man. This is what Kate Allen and George Parker say about him in a Financial Times profile (subscription).

Mrs May is Mr Hammond’s most important cabinet ally, but their relationship is less close than the one shared by David Cameron and Mr Osborne.

“They don’t meet three to four times a day, they meet three to four times a week,” one Hammond staffer said. “It is a more formal relationship but they are both very formal kinds of people. He is not a casual feet-up-on-the-table kind of guy, he’s the type of man who wears suits on aeroplanes.”

The FT article also contains an interesting line about how Hammond has changed the way decisions are made in the Treasury.

Political decision-making has long operated through the red box system: civil servants prepare briefing papers of a couple of pages or more in length that are packed up and sent home to be read overnight, with ministerial decisions handed down in the following day or two.

But the new chancellor demanded much shorter briefings, delivered to him two or three times a day for rapid decisions.

Although he still uses red boxes, it has made the Treasury’s operations “much quicker” says one senior civil servant who works closely with Mr Hammond “and the volume of decision making is higher”, while “the civil service has had to make its updates shorter and more succinct”.

Among those welcoming the government’s decision to ban letting agent fees is Olly Grender, the Lib Dem peer who has been pushing a private member’s bill through the Lords proposing just this.

Here is an extract from her second reading speech explaining the case for a ban.

Unlike people in the owner-occupied market, one in four renters moved home in 2013-14. Just under a third of renters have moved three times or more in the past five years, and just under a quarter of them in London. Each time they move, the up-front costs are often the greatest barrier of all ...

Costs vary from agent to agent and range from £40 to £780, with the average cost just under £400 per move. Many of those charges seem completely arbitrary. A credit check, for example, costs about £25 today, but some agencies charge a tenant £150 or more to carry one out. Marta, a lady who contacted the Debrief’s Make Renting Fair campaign, had asked to sign a three-year tenancy agreement. The agent said, “Fine, but you’ll have to pay three times the fee”: that was three times £360 just to re-sign. I spoke to a young woman this week who is in a two-bedroom flat. She is the main tenant and happily paid £150 for an inventory check and other things at the start of her tenancy, but every time her flatmate changes, the new tenant is charged a £150 for an inventory check which, of course, never happens—what a rip off!

Citizens Advice, which in the past year has seen 80,000 people with a problem in the private rented sector, has seen an 8% increase in complaints about letting agents. One tenant described a fee of £180 to renew a tenancy agreement that is staying exactly the same, except for a change of dates. It requires a simple printing or photocopying job, and it is the renters who go into the office and sign the form, but they are charged almost £200 for it.

And this is what she said about the argument that a ban would result in rents being increased. (See 9.37am.)

Fees for tenants have already been successfully banned in Scotland following legislation in 1984, which was clarified in 2012. Research into its impact commissioned by Shelter shows that it has had only minimal side-effects for letting agents, landlords and renters, and the sector remains healthy. Only 17% of letting agents increased fees to landlords, and only 24% reported a small negative effect on their business. Not one agency manager interviewed said it had a large negative impact on their business, while 17% said they considered the change to be positive for their business.

We’re expecting Philip Hammond to announce several billion pounds of infrastructure spending, including:

• Housebuilding: A £1.4bn “injection” to support the building of 40,000 homes.
  
• Transport: A £1.3bn road improvement scheme will aim to tackle bottlenecks and fix potholes.
  
• Digital: A £1bn scheme will push ahead with trials for 5G mobile access and superfast one gigabit broadband.
  

BHP Billiton economist Sukhdeep Dhillon says that Britain needs this injection of spending:

But.... Sam Tombs of Pantheon Economics points out that the government had been planning to squeeze public sector investment over the next few years:

Here’s our full list of what to watch out for today:

Ed Miliband lost the 2015 general election but today he will have the pleasure of seeing one of his proposals becoming government policy. Labour’s manifesto called for a ban on letting agent fees, which it said would save renters more than £600.

He has welcomed the fact that Philip Hammond has now adopted the idea, but wants the government to go further.

At the time of the election the Conservatives said a ban on letting agent fees would “lead to higher rents” and Gavin Barwell, the housing minister, was making exactly the same argument just two months ago.

Iain Duncan Smith, who resigned as work and pensions secretary earlier this year after the budget because he objected to the way George Osborne, the then chancellor, was cutting universal credit while offering tax cuts to higher earners, has been urging ministers to scrap those cuts to universal credit, which are worth £3.4bn.

On the Today programme this morning he gave a cautious welcome to the news that the Treasury will ameliorate the impact of those cuts, by reducing the taper rate. But he said he wanted the government to go further.

I consider this really a down payment - this is not game over. This is really about the fact the chancellor has said, given the circumstances and given that we don’t know where we are going to be, necessarily, as we get into Brexit stuff over the next two years, he wants to give a strong indication that they want to help those who are struggling. Here’s a starter for this, let’s see where we go over the next two to three years.

The news that Philip Hammond will announce a rise in the minimum wage to £7.50 per hour from April 2017 has received a subdued welcome.

Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, argues that workers need more help:

“We welcome any pay rise for low-paid workers, especially now in these uncertain times with speculations about food and other prices set to rise.

The reality, however, is that a fifth of UK workers aren’t paid enough to live on. There’s still a gap between the Government minimum and our real Living Wage of 8.45 in the UK and 9.75 in London, which is based on what families need to earn to meet everyday costs.”

And the FT’s Jim Pickard points out that the Low Pay Commission had expected a bigger rise, to keep pace with average earnings. However, wage growth this year has been more muted than expected.

[The government’s target is to lift the living wage to 60% of median earnings by 2020].

Hammond may insist he’s trying to help those of us who are ‘Just about Managing’.

But any new dollops of help for the Jams will be wiped away by the impact of the government’s existing austerity measures.

Today’s Guardian Editorial explains:

Before leaving No 11 this summer, George Osborne planned £13bn in benefit cuts and a further £16bn taken out of the budgets of “unprotected” Whitehall departments.

He also slashed spending for local councils. Given his ambition to balance the budget (by some as yet unspecified date), Mr Hammond is unlikely to drop any of those plans. So a working family that will earn a slightly higher minimum wage and a bit more next year on their universal credit will still have their tax credits frozen for the rest of this decade; their Sure Start centres will face the threat of closure and many of their children’s clubs and libraries could go to the wall. If Theresa May considers this helping, her version of hurting doesn’t bear thinking about.

We’ve pulled together some key charts to get you up to speed ahead of the autumn statement:

Last night, the Treasury released a series of picture of Philip Hammond perusing the autumn statement in a comfy armchair - and curiously perched by a window.

It reminded Baron Wood of Anfield, former advisor to Gordon Brown, of happier days:

George Osborne has tweeted Hammond his support from the back benches: