Writing to the Treasury Committee, the Chancellor has announced his intention to deliver his medium-term fiscal plan on 31 October, rather than 23 November.
The revised timetable will also include the long-awaited economic and fiscal forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The Chancellor has also indicated his willingness to attend the Treasury Committee ‘soon after the 31 October’.
In a new report Outlook for the public finances, the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests that the Chancellor faces a difficult path ahead, if he intends to set public finances on a sustainable footing. The IFS predicts that, although there remains ‘huge uncertainty around the exact magnitude’ of borrowing, in the medium term the government may need to consider £62bn of ‘fiscal tightening’ by 2026/27 to stabilise debt as a fraction of national income. What action the Chancellor decides to take, and whether any measures will take the form of spending cuts to benefits or to departmental budgets, remains to be seen. As the IFS notes, ‘such spending cuts could be done, but would be far from easy’.
Rather sharply perhaps, the IFS also issues a reminder to the Chancellor: ‘We need to avoid the situation Mr Kwarteng wrote about in 2012 where “in each new budget the government promised their books would balance tomorrow – but tomorrow never seemed to arrive”.’
Writing to the Treasury Committee, the Chancellor has announced his intention to deliver his medium-term fiscal plan on 31 October, rather than 23 November.
The revised timetable will also include the long-awaited economic and fiscal forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The Chancellor has also indicated his willingness to attend the Treasury Committee ‘soon after the 31 October’.
In a new report Outlook for the public finances, the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests that the Chancellor faces a difficult path ahead, if he intends to set public finances on a sustainable footing. The IFS predicts that, although there remains ‘huge uncertainty around the exact magnitude’ of borrowing, in the medium term the government may need to consider £62bn of ‘fiscal tightening’ by 2026/27 to stabilise debt as a fraction of national income. What action the Chancellor decides to take, and whether any measures will take the form of spending cuts to benefits or to departmental budgets, remains to be seen. As the IFS notes, ‘such spending cuts could be done, but would be far from easy’.
Rather sharply perhaps, the IFS also issues a reminder to the Chancellor: ‘We need to avoid the situation Mr Kwarteng wrote about in 2012 where “in each new budget the government promised their books would balance tomorrow – but tomorrow never seemed to arrive”.’
