(Bloomberg) — Britain’s influential Treasury Committee in Parliament has called on the chancellor of the exchequer to guarantee that Friday’s mini-budget will be audited by the government’s independent fiscal watchdog.
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The request was made in response to reports suggesting the new chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, will unveil a series of tax changes without the usual costings by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
In a letter to Kwarteng, committee chairman Mel Stride said he wanted an “assurance that if this announcement involves any major changes to the rate of existing taxes or the introduction of new taxes, it will be in a fiscal event accompanied by an OBR forecast.”
Kwarteng is expected to unveil the cost of the government’s emergency energy bill support alongside £30 billion worth of cuts to payroll and corporation tax, as part of plans to drive growth. He is understood to want to press ahead without an OBR forecast.
The OBR was set up in 2010 to keep the government honest about the economic outlook and the cost of its policies. The watchdog is expected to produce its outlook in the full budget statement later this year.
The OBR says it can produce a rudimentary forecast at short notice. The Treasury has previously pointed out that it announced a series of tax and spending changes without an OBR forecast during the pandemic.
Camilla Marshall, spokesperson for Prime Minister Liz Truiss, said on Tuesday: “The OBR’s forecast process usually takes 10 weeks. Whilst we could’ve asked the OBR to do one for this event, given the need to move swiftly, this would have involved compromises in quality and the completeness of the forecast. We remain committed to maintaining the usual two forecasts in this fiscal year.”
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