When is a “Long Term Economic Plan” not a “Long Term Economic Plan” – when there’s an election coming.

Last November Chancellor Osborne announced spending cuts throughout the next Parliament that would have reduced spending to 35.2% of GDP – which as the OBR pointed out would be the lowest since the 1930s.

In Budget 2015 the total spending plan for 2019-20 has suddenly jumped – to 36% of GDP (a whole 0.8%).

This has been achieved by a sudden £17.4bn jump in spending in 2019-20 (see below), but a significant drop in spending earlier in the Parliament compared to the Autumn ‘Long Term Plan’.

This extra £17.4bn in 2019-20 looks very much like a deliberate sleight of hand purely to ensure the 35.2% of GDP is tweaked upwards.
Continue reading “BUDGET 2015 – The Big Picture on Public Spending” →

Most of the commentary in the build up to the last Budget of this Parliament will, predictably, focus on the contents of George Osborne’s little red briefcase on 18th March.

Few will focus on what might happen afterwards – the Parliamentary procedure for implementing Budgets. That’s because these are usually pretty uncontroversial – Budget announcements usually get ‘rubber stamped’ through Parliament with little fuss and bother. But maybe not this time….. as I have speculated before. Continue reading “The Bust Up after the Budget?” →

This interesting article is re-posted from an IMF Blogsite here

Continue reading “Politics Matter…But Public Financial Management Reforms Do Too.” →

So, it appears fairly certain now that the Coalition Government is going to announce – sometime next year – Spending Review 2013.

But, and this is critical, Danny Alexander (Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury) seems to have said this will only be a 2 year Spending Review covering the years 2014-15 and 15-16 (interview in the Guardian).

——————– to read the full text go to Whitehall Watch

You can also search Whitehall Watch for the phrase “Spending Review” and get lots more ……

The nice people at HM Treasury who produce the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses annual publication have asked for some feedback. They will have access to this site, so if you have any comments, questions or suggestions about PESA simply leave them here and they’ll be checking to see what you have said. Thanks in anticipation…

The Treasury Select Committee has published its report on the Spending Review 2010. Please note especially the  section on the SR process, which is highly relevant to the Assignment for BMAN 30171

The systems that the Coalition government is putting in place to replace the implementation-side of the Spending Reviews as they existed under New Labour are becoming clearer. Continue reading “Coalition systems that replace PSAs etc.” →

Please see today’s post over on Whitehall Watch about the new Departmental Business Plans, which are linked to SR2010.

Also, for BMAN students, please see the announcements section.