Charter for Budget Responsibility — Reducing Public Borrowing — Cap on Welfare Spending — 20 Jul 2016 at 18:15

The majority of MPs voted in favour of reducing public borrowing and in favour of capping welfare spending.

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

• That this House
• calls on the Government to withdraw the Charter for Budget Responsibility: Autumn 2015 update, which was laid before this House on 12 October 2015, and to lay before the House at the earliest opportunity an alternative update which provides the basis for stabilising the UK economy and providing long-term investment for growth.

The Charter for Budget Responsibility: autumn 2015 update^[1] states:

• The Treasury’s objectives for fiscal policy are to:
• ensure sustainable public finances that support confidence in the economy, promote intergenerational fairness, and ensure the effectiveness of wider government policy
• support and improve the effectiveness of monetary policy in stabilising economic fluctuations

Under the heading "Mandate for fiscal policy" the document continues:

In normal times, once a headline surplus has been achieved, the Treasury’s mandate for fiscal policy is:

• a target for a surplus on public sector net borrowing in each subsequent year

For the period outside normal times from 2015-16 the Treasury’s mandate for fiscal policy is:

• a target for a surplus on public sector net borrowing by the end of 2019-20

The previous mandate for fiscal policy was included in the Autumn 2014 Charter for Budget Responsibility Update^[2] was:

• 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 autumn 2015 update which was the subject of this vote added that for this period until 2019-20, the Treasury’s mandate for fiscal policy is supplemented by:

• a target for public sector net debt as a percentage of GDP to be falling in each year

The charter also contains a section on capping welfare spending,

• To ensure that expenditure on welfare remains sustainable, the Treasury’s mandate for fiscal policy is further supplemented by:
• 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.

The section on the welfare cap remained unchanged following the approval of the autumn 2015 update.

See also:: Vote on Charter for Budget Responsibility: Autumn Statement 2014 Update — 13 Jan 2015.

The March 2015 budget^[3] states the 2015-16 Welfare Cap is £119.7bn and gives forecast spending in the scope of the cap in that year as £120.6bn

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• [1] Charter for Budget Responsibility: autumn 2015 update
• [2] Autumn 2014 Charter for Budget Responsibility Update
• [3] Budget document, March 2015

Debate in Parliament |