HM Treasury's response to ONS public sector finance
statistics for March 2024 is below.
An HM Treasury spokesperson said:
“Debt increased in recent years because we rightly protected
millions of jobs during Covid and paid half of people's energy
bills after Putin's invasion of Ukraine sent bills
skyrocketing.
“We can't leave future generations to pick up the tab, so we must
stick to the plan to get debt falling. And with inflation falling
and wages rising – we have been able to cut National Insurance by
a third, which shows our determination to end the double taxation
of work”.
Additional information:
- Thanks to our decisive action to support the Bank of England
to get inflation down from over 11% to 3.2%. The Bank of England
and the OBR are forecasting it will fall to around 2% by early
summer.
- Because of our responsible action with the public finances –
we were able to afford tax cuts for working people and
businesses.
- In March, the OBR forecast Public Sector Net Borrowing will,
in 2028/29, reach its lowest level as a share of GDP since
2001-02.
- The OBR forecast Public Sector Net Debt excluding the Bank of
England would fall to 92.9% of GDP in the fifth year of the
forecast (2028-29), meeting the government's fiscal rule.
- The Chancellor has made it clear that productivity growth in
the public sector needs to improve which is why at Spring Budget
he invested £3.4 billion in the NHS to help unlock £35 billion in
productivity savings over the next Parliament and £800 million in
public sector productivity programmes to deliver up to £1.8
billion worth of benefits by 2029.
