I had an in depth all with the HR talent partner which went well (45mins) followed by a first round interview with a hiring manager (45mins). I was invited to the next stage, which I believe was to be a task based exercise, but then I received a call from the HR talent partner stating the budget for this role has been drastically reduced (c.£20k) so I opted to withdraw from the process. I was kept fairly well informed during the process, and the HR talent partner was very apologetic on the phone, but it was a bit of a waste of time overall. Dropping the salary that much is not insignificant and had this salary been advertised at the start, I would not have applied.