Lord committee says chancellor and recent predecessors have allowed themselves too little room for manoeuvre
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Rachel Reeves should aim to run a “significantly larger” buffer against her fiscal rules, according to a report from a House of Lords committee that says the UK’s public debt is on an unsustainable trajectory.
The chancellor raised taxes at last year’s budget in order to more than double the “headroom”, or buffer, against her fiscal rules to £22bn – some of which is expected to be eroded by the impact of the Iran war.
But the Lords economic affairs committee says Reeves should aim to raise it more, and complains that she and her recent predecessors have tended to allow themselves too little room for manoeuvre, compared with the £30bn average between 2010 and 2022.
