This week has seen much talk – again – of the ‘Treasury View’, and how that rarely defined set of values might be influencing this government’s approach to migration.
First, let’s kill off some conspiracy theories that exist about the Treasury View. In general terms the Treasury View stands for cautious conservatism (with a small C) surrounding the payback from public spending, a belief in free trade, and in free markets. The Treasury View also extols the virtue of a steady currency, low and stable inflation, and soundly managed public finances. Former Treasury Permanent Secretary, Lord Nick Macpherson, in a speech in 2014, placed these amongst ten propositions for what he described as ‘a Treasury view for our time’. Whilst the UK economy and its institutions has encountered a tumultuous 11 years since, that speech remains the best outline of the tenets of Treasury economic thought.
What the Treasury View is not is some deep-state proponent of social policy through its economic and financial advice to ministers, including the Chancellor.
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