Autumn Statement 2014: news you can use

There are few news events that offer businesses such a clear opportunity to create useful content as the Budget and its little brother, the Autumn Statement, announced this week.

The most obvious candidates for grasping the opportunity to explain what the Chancellor’s announcements mean for their customers are pensions and savings companies and financial advisors. But with past measures ranging from pasties to bingo to £1 million houses, a far greater variety of businesses (and customers) are affected by the Government’s tax and spending plans.

For example, with stamp duty changes winning many of the headlines this time round, there’s plenty for property companies, mortgage lenders and estate agents to get their teeth into in terms of creating useful content for their readers and customers.

A search the morning after the announcement on the highest-ranking content for “Autumn Statement what it means for me” and ditto “what it means for you” is dominated by the major news organisations, which devote considerable staff resources to making sure their articles are the best-read. But there are a number of notable exceptions among businesses and organisations, which have taken prime spots in Google’s rankings:

The “Bude and Beyond” organisation has successfully got a front-page listing for what the measures mean for Cornwall, by posting an interview with its local MP on its Facebook page.

Financial products comparison site Love Money also ranks highly with its run-through of the main measures and they will affect the average person.

Among financial services companies, Hargreaves Lansdown was quick off the mark with its concise explanation of the impact on ISA savers, pension and annuities holders and people who may be affected by the Stamp Duty changes.

Finally, the charity Age UK’s 2013 “what the Autumn Statement means for you” content STILL ranks on the first page of Google’s results. No sign of the 2014 version yet but it must have been good…