Jonathan Jones

The IFS gives its Budget verdict

The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ briefing is always a good place to pick up a few interesting nuggets of detail about the Budget — and this year’s is no exception. Here are five of the most striking points from their presentation this morning:

1. Beyond the next election. In November, Osborne caused a stir by announcing that — in order to meet his fiscal target — further spending cuts would be needed after 2015. Annex A of the Budget gives some more detail on this, and the IFS has crunched the numbers even further. They calculate that the fiscal consolidation from 2009-10 to 2016-17 will total £123 billion and that the overall ratio of spending cuts to tax rises will be 83:17.

But where will those extra spending cuts come from? If there are to be no further departmental cuts after the 2010 Spending Review, the IFS says we would need to cut welfare spending by £20 billion. But if — as Osborne’s Budget suggests — departmental cuts continue at the same rate as in this parliament, the welfare cuts would need to be more like £8–10 billion. Where to strike this balance will no doubt be the subject of much debate in the run up to the next election.

2. The 50p tax: uncertainty still reigns. George Osborne may have answered one question about the 50p tax rate — when it will be scrapped — but several remain unanswered, despite the detailed report on it by HMRC which accompanied the Budget. The big one, of course, is: ‘How much will scrapping it cost?’ HMRC’s estimate is just £100 million. The IFS says their analysis is ‘probably the best they could do with information available’ and produces similar results to other studies including the IFS’s own, but warns that — as HMRC acknowledge — there is still huge uncertainty.

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