Author Archives: Rachel Gibbs

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Letters to John McDonnell MP and Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP

We have published two letters of correspondence on our website today. John McDonnell MP wrote to us on 7 March asking for clarification on the methodology used for the CGT changes announced at Budget and for an explanation of the different numbers presented in the OBR’s Economic and fiscal outlook and the Treasury’s Red Book….

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Supplementary forecast information on WCA reforms

Since the publication of our November 2023 Economic and fiscal outlook (EFO) we have received requests for information on our estimates of the number of individuals whose conditionality group will be different as a result of the work capability assessment (WCA) reforms. We have published this new supplementary forecast information below and on the November…

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Spring 2024 forecast date announced

The Chancellor has announced that the Spring Budget will take place on Wednesday 6 March 2024. Our latest outlook for the economy and public finances will be released on the same day. Economic and fiscal outlooks

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Supplementary forecast information on our deposit rate forecast

Since the publication of our November 2023 Economic and fiscal outlook (EFO) we have received requests for further information on our deposit rate forecast. We have published this new supplementary forecast information below and on the November 2023 EFO page.

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Publication of Working paper No. 21: Developments in devolved income tax

In this paper, we take a comprehensive look at the evolution of the significant and widening gap in the amount of income tax paid per person in Scotland and Wales relative to the UK as a whole, exploring the drivers behind the changes in order to identify trends that should be factored into our devolved…

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Publication of Working paper No.20: A review of welfare policy costings

Since its creation, the OBR has scrutinised over 250 policy costings relating to changes in the benefits and tax credits systems. This paper looks back at how our scrutiny of those policy costings has evolved by reviewing ten case studies of major welfare policy changes taken from the 41 welfare policy announcements made by the…

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Publication of Discussion paper No.4: Next steps for climate change analysis

Over the last five years, the OBR has made great efforts to understand and analyse the fiscal implications of climate change. To date, our analysis has focused primarily on mitigation risks, most notably in the climate change chapter of our 2021 Fiscal risks report (FRR) which provided the UK’s first comprehensive estimate of the fiscal…

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November 2023 forecast timetable

On 5 September the Chancellor announced that the Autumn Statement 2023 will be held on Wednesday 22 November and commissioned us to publish our latest outlook for the economy and public finances that day. We have now agreed the timetable for the forecast process and published the detail below.

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Working paper 19: The OBR’s forecast performance

Our latest working paper, The OBR’s forecast performance, provides a comprehensive evaluation of the OBR’s economic and fiscal forecasting record since we were established in 2010. We assess how our 27 forecasts have performed against outturn over the past 13 years and look at how our forecasting record compares to other UK and international forecasters….