Spring Statement Special Edition

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Britain’s economy survived omicron relatively unscathed, but soaring inflation and energy price rises exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine mean Rishi Sunak has a tough job on his hands to ease the worst cost of living crisis in decades. Ahead of Wednesday’s spring statement, we discuss what options the chancellor has available to him to ease the squeeze. Former Treasury advisor Tim Pitt and National Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses Martin McTague are our special guests. “Unless wage growth can match inflation, the cost of living squeeze is going to be much worse than expected.” - Tom Pope “Ukraine produces a lot of the world’s grain, so food prices are rising because of the conflict.” - Tom Pope “The Chancellor can only take the edge of the pain for people, it will be a difficult period for millions.” - Tim Pitt “Helping the vulnerable has to be the priority, but swathes of middle England are also about to be slapped.”- Tim Pitt “I’ll be very interested to see if the Chancellor mentions the phrase net-zero.” - Jill Rutter “Small businesses are having to compete for a shrinking pool of labour, so there will be pay rises.” - Martin McTague This budget preview edition is supported by the Federation of Small Businesses. Find out more at www.fsb.org.uk Presented by Gemma Tetlow with Tom Pope and Jill Rutter. Audio production by Alex Rees. Inside Briefing is a Podmasters Production for the IfG. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing Extra, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.0	I'm Gemmatello, Chief Economist at the Institute for Government, stepping briefly into the
0:18.7	presenter's chair to bring you this bonus episode to discuss the Chancellor's forthcoming spring statement.
0:24.2	This special edition of the podcast is supported by the Federation of Small Businesses.
0:28.9	The outlook for the economy and household incomes has shifted dramatically since Rishyston Act delivered his budget in October.
0:35.3	The UK economy survived the Omicron R rate of coronavirus relatively unscathed,
0:39.8	and all legal restrictions have now been lifted. But as the impact of COVID recedes, other crises have
0:45.3	grown. Concerns about energy prices, wider inflation and their impact on the cost of living
0:50.1	were already growing at the time of the October budget, but in 2022, prices have risen even more
0:55.7	rapidly further exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine. In normal times, spring statements are
1:01.4	supposed to be economic and fiscal updates without any policy announcements. But Sinak has already
1:06.7	announced new policies once this year, a nine billion billion package in February to help with energy costs,
1:12.2	and the war in Ukraine has exacerbated price rises and created calls for further defence spending.
1:17.2	To help discuss what all of this might mean for what we'll hear from the Chancellor this week,
1:21.2	I'm delighted to be joined by two of my IFG colleagues and two special guests.
1:25.4	I have with me today Jill Rutter, senior fellow at the
1:27.7	IFG and a former Treasury civil servant. Welcome, Jill. Hi, Gemma. Tom Pope is Deputy Chief
1:32.5	Economist. Hi Tom. Hello, Gemma. And I'm delighted to be joined by our two special guests
1:36.5	today. Tim Pitt is a partner at Flint Global and a former special advisor to both Philip Hammond and
1:41.5	Sajad Javid at the Treasury. Thanks for joining us, Tim.
1:44.3	Hi, Gemma. And last but certainly not least, Martin McTague, National Chair of the Federation of
1:48.5	Small Businesses. Hi, Martin. Hi, Gemma. Tim, what's likely to be going on at the moment in number
	...

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