Chancellor George Osborne will give his Autumn Statement today against the backdrop of a stagnant economy and an expected increase in this year's budget deficit.

Of interest to print will be further details on the £1bn government-backed bank announced back in September, as well as the proposal to allow employees to trade employment rights for shares in their business.

Commenting on the upcoming statement, Gerry Hoare of Deal Bureau, said: "The main measure I hope to see would be a way to get funding to SME’s. If something more supportive had been in place, then companies like BGP might not have failed. When companies are reliant on shareholders constantly pumping in cash and are not able to leverage assets, it makes business difficult.

"I am not saying banks should lend to insolvent or terminally ill companies; however, I know BGP did have a balance sheet of assets that with some tweaking could have made a difference.
I also think the government needs to look at the reporting burden on SME’s. There seems to be a lot in the press about HMRC being given significant amounts of cash to go after non-payers, but nothing about how the government could support SME’s."

Murray Booker of Finance in Partnership added: "Funding issues aside, I feel there is a huge lack of confidence out there at the moment and who could blame business people for that.

"Anything the chancellor can do to help that issue would clearly help rebuild our economy but I fear his hands are tied by the commitment to the current austerity measures. If anything, he may make things worse, especially if he tampers with things like pension allowances."

In the March budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast growth of 0.8% for 2012, followed by 2% in 2013 and 3% by 2015.

However, with the economy having shrunk 0.3% in Q1 and 0.4% in Q2, before an Olympic-inspired 1% growth in Q3, most independent forecasters are predicting a contraction in 2012 and a downgrade to future growth forecasts.

The OBR growth forecast could be halved 1% in 2013 and 1.5% from 2014-16.

As such, it is likely the chancellor will have to impose more spending cuts or tax rises if he hopes to meet his targets for eliminating the structural deficit and ensuring government debt as a portion of GDP begins to fall by 2015/16.

Aside from expected support for measures announced in Lord Heseltine's report, much of the national coverage has focussed on possible cuts to pension tax relief, the Lib Dem proposal for some form of mansion tax and a reformed version of the failed Private Finance Initiatives.

We'll keep you updated with the Autumn Statement and what it means for print as it happens.

PLEASE REFRESH THIS PAGE FOR THE LATEST ANNOUNCEMENTS LIVE FROM THE AUTUMN STATEMENT FROM 12:30PM.

That's it for our Live coverage - not much detail but some useful takeaways, including the scrapping of the fuel duty rise and the dramatic increase to the capital allowance. It will be interesting to see what detail is now published on the £1bn BIS-backed bank. Check back later for more on today's announcement as well as reaction from the industry

13:21 "The deificit is down, borrowing is down, jobs are being created, it is a hard road but we are making progress. And in everything we do, we’re helping those who want to work hard and get on," concludes the chancellor

13:19 Personal tax allowance to be increased from next April by an extra £235, taking the increase to £1,335 in total. Personal allowance will reach £9,440 "in touching distance of £10,000"

13:18 Council tax to be frozen again next year while there will be a cap on rail fare rises - Fuel is 10p per litre cheaper than under Labour's tax plans and the 3p per litre rise planned for January has been scrapped

13:16 Main rate of corporation tax by a further 1% to 21% from April 2014 - the lowest rate of every major Western economy - "Britain is open for business" says Osborne. Banks will not benefit and in fact the banking levy will be increased

13:15 SMEs from 1 Jan and for next two years get tenfold increase in annual investment allowance for plant and machinery - £250,000 of investment now covered rather than £25,000 - wow

13:12 New money to be provided to support the LEPs and from April 2015 the government will place more of the funding that goes on local transport, housing, skills and getting people back to work into a single pot for LEPs to bid for. Details will be set out in the Spending Review

More money for the Regional Growth Fund, which the chancellor says is helping businesses create 500,000 new jobs. Support for Aerospace and the supply chains of Advanced Manufacturing as well as a 25% funding boost to UKTI and the creation of a new £1.5bn export finance facility to support the purchase of British exports

New business bank with £1bn of capital to help SMEs - no details as yet though. "We’re creating a new Business Bank and providing it with £1bn of extra capital which will lever in private lending to help small and medium sized firms and bring together existing schemes," says the chancellor.

Temporary doubling of the small business rate relief was due to be ended in 2011 - already extended to April 2013, now extended to April 2014. Employee shareholder scheme to get tax support

13:11 Lord Heseltine's review now coming...

13:10 Increase in the higher rate threshold of 1% in 2014/15 and 2015/16

13:07 Expected cut to benefit rises, which will be cut to 1% for most working age benefits, including job seekers allowance, for the next three years, rather than linked to inflation. Changes will save £3.7bn from 2015/16

13:04 There will be no mansion tax. From 2014 the annual tax-free pension allowance will be reduced from £50,000 to £40,000

13:00 Reforms to the welfare system coming up as well as details on tax avoidance. Targeting of tax evaders has led to £7bn more tax revenue than previous government. A treaty signed with Switzerland will result in £5bn being clawed back by HMRC over the next six years from undisclosed accounts of UK residents

12:59 Replacement for the "discredited PFI" ensuring the public sector takes a share of the reward as it is now clear it was taking a share of the risk

12:56 Whitehall budgets to be reduced by 1% next year and 2% in the following year. All the money saved in the first two years will be reinvested in infrastructure - £5bn in total, including £1bn on roads, as well as investment in the HS2 rail link, high speed broadband, £600m more for the UK's scientific research infrastructure and £1bn to expand "good schools" and build 100 new free schools and academies

12:51 All measures in the Autumn Statement will be fiscally neutral. "This government has shown it is possible to restore sanity to public finances while improving services," says Osborne

12:50 "We've cut the structural deficit by 3% points - more than any other G7 country," says Osborne

12:47 Good news for the chancellor from the OBR there - many had predicted borrowing would go up this year. The OBR also says the government is "on course" to meet its fiscal mandate to eliminate the structural deficit in 5 years but delays by one year the date from which debt will start to fall to 2016/17

12:45 Deficit stood at 11.2% - Deficit is forecast to fall this year as well as cash borrowing. Last year the deficit stood at 7.9% this year it will be 6.9%, 6.1% in 2013, 5.2% in 2014, 4.2% in 2015, 2.6% in 2016 and 1.6% in 2017

12:43 Transfer of Royal Mail Pension Fund results in one-off reduction of £28bn in this year but adds to the deficit in following years. £70bn added to National Debt by bringing Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley on balance sheet

12:42 Funding for Lending Scheme is praised for lowering funding costs for banks - seen as a factor affecting supply of credit - no mention of the £1.1bn reduction in net lending across the six banks that drew funds from the FLS in Q3

12:39 OBR Forecast: the economy has performed less strongly than expected - accounted for by over-optimism regarding net trade. New forecast for 2012 minus 0.1% growth - largely the product of the Eurozone crisis

Contraction in 2008/09 now assessed to be deeper than previously thought - GDP shrinking by 6.3% - aftermath of this shock continues to weigh on UK economy

GDP growth to be lower in every year of forecast: 1.2% in 2013, 2% in 2014, 2.3% in 2015, 2.7% in 2016, 2.8% in 2017

12:38 Announcement to come on new support for business and enterprise

12:37 1.2m jobs created in the private sector in the past 2 years, budget deficit down a quarter. £33bn saving on the predicted debt interest payment this year (versus prediction given two years ago)

12:36 The speaker has to pause the chancellor's statement due to the level of noise from the Labour backbench

12:35 The chancellor says the British economy is healing again to loud jeers from Labour

PMQs just wrapping up now. Not long before the chancellor delivers this year's Autumn Budget. Given the state of the economy it's sure to be a tricky balancing act - let's hope George Osborne has a plan up his sleeve to get the UK economy moving again