***General Election Edition***
Monthly Debt News looks at debts and the causes of debts in Britain from various sources selected for professionals to make the debt sector simple.
This month’s Debt News British General Election edition of Debt News will look at UK's fiscal rules and IMA forecast on UK's insurance cuts and debt, £3 trillion timebomb for national political party leaders and local council finances. You will find bitsize data to give a snapshot of the national economy and you can catch up with previous monthly Debt Talk podcasts.
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National Debt News
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The UK’s public finances: is it time to reform the fiscal rules?
Boosting economic growth while maintaining sustainable levels of public spending is a huge policy challenge for the UK. The government’s self-imposed fiscal rules may themselves act as a constraint. Reforming the rules could help to revive the country’s stagnant economy
More here: Link
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Public finances and the 2024 general election
There are few certainties in a general election campaign. This time is no different, though there are two things of which we can be reasonably confident.
First, the UK’s parlous fiscal position will hang over the campaign like a dark cloud. Both Labour and the Conservatives are committed to precisely the same debt target. That target is currently on track to be met by the finest of margins. Promises of fiscal largesse, whether tax cuts or spending increases, would mean breaching it. If the parties are serious about their fiscal rules, they will have to keep a lid on those promises.
Second, the parties will do everything possible to avoid revealing how they would approach the difficult economic and fiscal trade-offs awaiting the next government in the autumn.
More here: Link
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IMF upgrades UK growth forecast but issues fresh warning on national insurance cuts and debt
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the UK economy is heading for a "soft landing" but reiterated its message to Jeremy Hunt that he should not have cut national insurance at the last two fiscal events.
In its annual check-up on the state of Britain's economy, the Washington-based Fund also warned of a black hole in the public finances, with £30bn of spending cuts or tax rises needed to stabilise the national debt.
More here: Link
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Britain is drowning in debt - so why won't Sunak and Starmer discuss £3trillion timebomb?
General election battlegrounds have been drawn up as the two main parties argue about tax, the state pension, NHS funding, conscription for teenagers and just about everything else.
Yet there’s one word Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer would rather not mention at all. They should, though, because unles they do something about it, it's going to sink the country.
More here: Link
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The council debt crisis is of the government’s own making
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, rising national debt led intellectuals – particularly on the left – to theorise about the relationship between debt and economies. The late anthropologist David Graeber was critical of what he dubbed the rise of debtocracies, and the role that state actors played in using crises to legitimise policies of fiscal restraint, as the UK witnessed in 2010 under the coalition government.
At the same time, heterodox economists in France, Italy and Spain began to question the legitimacy of indebtedness by conducting what they called “citizen debt audits”, and challenging the prevailing assumptions that spending restraint was necessary.
More here: Link
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How much tax money does the UK government raise and spend?
Ahead of the general election, the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems have ruled out increasing income tax, VAT and National Insurance. However, tax rises or cuts to public services could lie ahead because of financial challenges for the next government, the Institute of Fiscal Studies think tank has warned.
More here: Link
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(May 2024) - Debt Talk: UK waters & our bills
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Bite Size stats:
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UK general government gross debt was £2,654.3 billion at the end of Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2023, equivalent to 100.0% of gross domestic product (GDP). UK general government deficit (or net borrowing) was £39.2 billion in Quarter 3 2023, equivalent to 5.8% of GDP (ONS)
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The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) sets monetary policy to meet the 2% inflation target, and in a way that helps to sustain growth and employment. At its meeting ending on 8 May 2024, the MPC voted by a majority of 7–2 to maintain Bank Rate at 5.25%. Two members preferred to reduce Bank Rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 5%. (Bank of England)
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There is wide variation between authorities, and even though total core spending power across England has risen by 10.2% in real terms between 2015/16 and 2024/25, less than half of authorties (Parliamentary Research Briefing)
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(April 2024) - Debt Talk: Poverty & ethnicity premiums (Podcast)
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