The Treasury's plans for public spending would require spending by central government on public services to be cut in real terms by 8.6% in 2013-14 compared to 2010-11. Is this too much or too little, and how should the pain be shared? A new tool, DIY Spending Review, that can be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet enables you to carry your own "Spending Review 2010".
There is a lot we do not yet know about how Labour and the Conservatives would go about repairing Britain's battered public finances over the next few years. But yesterday's speeches by David Cameron and Alistair Darling at least highlight a sharp difference of opinion over what should be done next year. Yet the picture is quite not as straightforward as either makes out.
Starting with a look at historical funding for the NHS, The King's Fund and the Institute for Fiscal Studies set out three plausible future funding scenarios and their consequences.
In Prime Minister's Questions this week Gordon Brown and David Cameron clashed over the Government's plans for spending on investment in public services. So how do the plans for investment spending going forwards compare to Labour's record to date and to that of previous Conservative Governments?
The International Monetary Fund has released the conclusions of its annual "Article IV" health-check for the UK economy. It endorses the Government's short-term fiscal giveaway to help ameliorate the recession (which the Conservatives say was a mistake), but says that it should be more ambitious in its plans to repair the public finances once the economic recovery is underway.
If the picture painted by the Treasury in this year’s Budget is correct, we are currently suffering a “bust” without having enjoyed a “boom”. But there is an alternative view of recent history that casts a less favourable light on Gordon Brown's tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The outlook for the public finances appears significantly weaker than the Treasury predicted in the November 2008 Pre-Budget Report (PBR). This Briefing Note sets out illustrative projections for the outlook for government borrowing and debt over the next few years.
Despite official figures showing that the public finances are weakening more sharply than the Treasury predicted in November's Pre-Budget Report, Gordon Brown has been handed some useful ammunition if he wants to argue for a further short-term fiscal giveaway in April's Budget.
