Osborne ‘to scrap’ the Pre-Budget report
By politics.co.uk staff
The annual Pre-Budget Report (PBR) is set to be scrapped and replaced with short statements on Treasury forecasts, according to media reports.
The chancellor is to abandon the practise, in place since Gordon Brown started at the Treasury in 1997, of producing the mid-year comprehensive reports on the government’s spending plans, and instead will issue a slimmed-down statement.
A spokesman for HM Treasury said: “An economic forecast and statement will be presented to Parliament in the Autumn. Further details will be announced to parliament in the usual way.”
The Treasury is currently consumed with the comprehensive spending review, to be completed in October, which will detail the full scale and scope of government spending cuts, with huge political implications.
Arguments within government have already been evident, as Cabinet ministers fight to spare their departments from Mr Osborne’s axe.
Defence secretary Liam Fox is attempting to secure Treasury funding for the Trident replacement, with the chancellor insisting the money must come from within the existing defence budget, while Iain Duncan Smith is demanding funding of his ambitious welfare reforms, to name but two examples.
All government departments are being asked to find savings of up to 40% in their budgets.
