David Prosser: Budget pleas set to fall on deaf ears

Outlook Bless. Within hours of the Treasury announcing yesterday that the Chancellor will deliver the pre-Budget report on 9 December, every special interest group under the sun was publishing its list of demands. There are sure going to be a lot of disappointed folk around come 10 December.

There's a reason this year's PBR is taking place so much later than usual (mid-November is typical and there has been a clamour in recent weeks over the Treasury's failure to set a date). Alistair Darling wants to leave it as late as possible to unveil his latest economic forecasts so that there's every chance for some more positive data to emerge.

Yesterday's better-than-expected unemployment figures were a start, but despite his protestations that he never thought the economy would begin growing before the end of the year, Mr Darling had always hoped he would be giving the PBR having seen the UK emerge from recession at the end of the third quarter.

That would have allowed the Chancellor to sugar the PBR pills – despite the pleas for tax cuts and spending pledges, there's some nasty medicine on the way – with his record on steering the UK to recovery.

Pre-election budgets are notorious for announcements designed to woo the voters and no doubt Mr Darling will engage in some political grandstanding next month. But the difference this time is that the financial markets will give him precious little room for manoeuvre.

The warning from Fitch this week that it might cut Britain's precious AAA credit rating unless it gets a clearer picture of how the Chancellor plans to get on top of the public finances from 2010 onwards is just the latest reminder of what a tight corner Mr Darling is boxed into.