Andrew Tyrie promised that the Treasury Select Committee would be an
assertive, insistent body under his stewardship — and he hasn’t disappointed so far. The committee’s recent evidence sessions have been fiery affairs, particularly by the usual standards of
these things. And today they have released the result: an extensive and prescriptive report into last
month’s Budget.
Several of the report’s observations are worth noting down — not least that advance briefing of the Budget is “corrosive of good government,” and that “almost all the evidence received [about the government’s Enterprise Zones] is unsure about the extent to which they will contribute to UK growth.” But more significant is the suggestion that both the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility could do more to accommodate each other when it comes to constructing growth forecasts. The problem is that some of Osborne’s measures — such as the extra cut in corporation tax — were decided on so late that the OBR couldn’t, apparently, factor them into their calculations.
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