HM Treasury's response to ONS public sector finance statistics for April 2024 is below.
An HM Treasury spokesperson said: “We rightly protected millions of jobs during Covid and paid half of people’s energy bills after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent bills skyrocketing – but it wouldn’t be fair to leave future generations to pick up the tab.
“That’s why we must stick to the plan to get debt falling. The economy is turning a corner, with strong growth this quarter and inflation close to target, allowing us to cut taxes for the average worker by £900 a year.”
Additional information:
- Thanks to our decisive action to support the Bank of England to get inflation down from over 11% to 2.3%. The Bank of England and the OBR are forecasting it will fall to around 2% by early summer.
- Because of our responsible action with the public finances – we were able to afford tax cuts for working people and businesses.
- In March, the OBR forecast Public Sector Net Borrowing will, in 2028/29, reach its lowest level as a share of GDP since 2001-02.
- The OBR forecast Public Sector Net Debt excluding the Bank of England would fall to 92.9% of GDP in the fifth year of the forecast (2028-29), meeting the government's fiscal rule.
- The Chancellor has made it clear that productivity growth in the public sector needs to improve which is why at Spring Budget he invested £3.4 billion in the NHS to help unlock £35 billion in productivity savings over the next Parliament, and £800 million in other public services to deliver up to £1.8 billion worth of productivity benefits by 2029.
