Public Spending
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The volatility on the financial markets is continuing in the wake of the chancellor's announcement of massive tax cuts last month. The government's current plan is to announce full details of how it will fund those cuts and balance the books on October 31st. One of its options is to rein in public spending - the expenditure that goes on healthcare, schools, welfare, infrastructure and much more,
So what is the level of public spending right now, how does it compare historically and what would be the impact on our services and benefits of any cuts?
Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are: Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute For Fiscal Studies Soumaya Keynes, UK Economics Editor at The Economist Anita Charlesworth, Director of Research at the Health Foundation Gemma Tetlow, Chief Economist at The Institute For Government
PHOTO: The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng (Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.2 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Daronovich. |
| 0:12.2 | You, me, the top experts, a big issue and 28 minutes, |
| 0:16.5 | all brought together in the virtual space that is the briefing room. |
| 0:20.6 | This week, what does the current economic turmoil in Britain mean? all brought together in the virtual space that is the briefing room. |
| 0:26.1 | This week, what does the current economic turmoil in Britain mean for public spending? |
| 0:31.4 | Turmoyle, everything changing. |
| 0:34.1 | Yet out of it, we have to make some sense. |
| 0:38.8 | As the government struggles with the aftermath of its mini-budget, its options include reining in public spending. As of now, the timetable is that they will be outlining their plans |
| 0:44.7 | on the 31st of October, Halloween. So where are we with public spending right now? How have we |
| 0:52.1 | got there? And what would be the impact on our services and benefits of any |
| 0:56.2 | cuts? Step into the briefing room and find out. First, let's set the parameters of the government's |
| 1:07.7 | problem. Paul Johnson is the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, |
| 1:11.8 | or IFS, which this week published its own study of the choices the government faces. |
| 1:17.2 | Paul Johnson, just to set the context for the current economic uncertainty, |
| 1:22.3 | what in fiscal terms did the Chancellor announce in his mini-budget last month, |
| 1:26.3 | and how does it fit in to his overall programme? Well, the Chancellor announce in his mini-budget last month? And how does it fit in to his overall programme? |
| 1:30.2 | Well, the Chancellor announced a set of tax cuts, which come to somewhat more than £40 billion a year into the medium run. |
| 1:36.9 | That's a very big set of tax cuts. Indeed, in fact, as a fraction of the total economy, |
| 1:43.3 | it's the biggest that we've seen in 50 years. |
| 1:46.7 | And, of course, it comes as a remarkably difficult moment. |
| 1:50.0 | It comes at a point when inflation is very high, when the Bank of England is trying to damp that down. |
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