UK Chancellor Brings Forward Debt-Cutting Plan to Oct. 31

Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng attends an In Conversation with the Institute of Economics Affairs and TaxPayers' Alliance on the third day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 4, 2022. (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

The UK government’s plan to reduce debt will be published on Oct. 31, more than three weeks before it was originally due, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng said on Monday.

In a letter to Parliament’s Treasury Committee Chair Mel Stride, Kwarteng said he had decided to move up the date from Nov. 23 to Oct. 31.

An economic and fiscal forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will be published alongside the government’s medium-term fiscal plan on the date.

It follows confusion last week around whether the chancellor was planning to bring forward the date after the government came under fire for not publishing an OBR forecast along with its mini-budget last month.

In his letter to Stride, Kwarteng defended not publishing the “preliminary analysis” by OBR that he had received upon becoming the chancellor because he had “since made significant policy announcements including the Growth Plan.”

He said the new date will give the government time to finalise the medium-term fiscal plan, which he previously said would be a “credible plan” to get the public finances back on track with a “commitment to spending discipline.”

He also said the timeframe will allow the OBR to capture data releases, go through “a full forecast process” and provide an “in-depth assessment of the economy and public finances.”

Stride, who previously pressed the chancellor to publish an OBR forecast, said he “strongly welcome[s]” the decision to accelerate the publication, adding that “if this lands well with markets,” the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee may set a “smaller rise” in interest rates when they meet on Nov. 3.

Government ‘Confident’

Downing Street said it will unveil more details of its growth plans ahead of the fiscal plan announcement.

“Obviously you’ll have noticed that we brought forward the date for the medium-term fiscal plan to Oct. 31,” Prime Minister Liz Truss’s official spokesperson told reporters on Monday.

“We are looking at the choreography of the other growth [measures,] so we’ll try and update you on that as soon as possible. But, yes, there will be some further detail on those growth plans in advance of [Oct.] 31.”

The spokesperson said the government is “confident” that it will be able to “provide sufficient level of detail to the OBR” before it completes its forecast.

Asked why Kwarteng brought forward his medium-term fiscal plan, the official said, “I think as the chancellor said in his letter to the Treasury Select Committee, to provide the full economic and fiscal outlook quickly, we recognise the importance of that and wanted to set out his commitment to debt falling over the medium term, and set out the detailed plans as soon as possible, and we believe that [Oct.] 31 is the right time to do that.”

The Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney called the decision “yet another screeching U-turn from a government that’s lost control of the economy.”

She called on Kwarteng to “explain what he’ll do to tackle soaring mortgage costs caused by his botched budget,” saying, “Without a clear plan to protect homeowners, this risks ending up as Kwasi Kwarteng’s Halloween horror show.”