Charter for Budget Responsibility: Autumn Statement 2014 Update — 13 Jan 2015 at 16:07

The majority of MPs voted in favour of aiming to achieve falling national debt by 2016-17 and for the 2017-18 national budget to be balanced when adjusted for a recessionary or expansionary economy.

The motion supported by the majority of MPs in this vote was:

• That the Charter for Budget Responsibility: Autumn Statement 2014 update, which was laid before this House on 15 December 2014, be approved.

As required by the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011, the Charter for Budget Responsibility sets out the government’s fiscal and debt management policy and how this will operate.

The Treasury's mandates for fiscal policy set our in the document are:

• a forward-looking aim to achieve cyclically-adjusted current balance by the end of the third year of the rolling, 5-year forecast period. [The cyclically-adjusted balance is one adjusted for higher spending and reduced income during a recession.]
• an aim for public sector net debt as a percentage of GDP to be falling in 2016-17
• the cap on welfare spending, at a level set out by the Treasury in the most recently published Budget report , over the rolling 5-year forecast period, to ensure that expenditure on welfare is contained within a predetermined ceiling

During the debate the Chancellor^[1] stated:

• We then commit in the charter to achieving falling national debt by 2016-17 and a surplus on our cyclically adjusted current budget by 2017-18. That requires £30 billion of consolidation.

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• [1] George Osborne MP, Tatton, Conservative, House of Commons, 13 January 2015

Debate in Parliament | Source |