Osborne backs Chote for second term as head of budget watchdog

Robert Chote, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility. He will face an appointment hearing before the cross-party Treasury select committee, which is expected to confirm him in the role. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

Robert Chote, chairman of the budget watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility, has promised to continue shining a light on “the darker recesses of the public finances” after the chancellor gave him another five-year term in the job.

The OBR was set up by George Osborne in 2010 to make independent forecasts of economic growth and the public finances, and provide a check on the Treasury’s tax-and-spending plans.

Confirming that he had nominated Chote, a former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, for another five-year term, the chancellor described Chote as “undoubtedly the best person for the job”. “In its successful first five years, Robert has admirably led the OBR with intelligence, independence and integrity,” Osborne said.

Chote will face an appointment hearing before the cross-party Treasury select committee in the weeks ahead, which is expected to confirm him in the role.

Chote, whose interventions have occasionally been controversial, including a description of the chancellor’s spending plans in the March budget as a “rollercoaster”, said: “I hope that we have been able to shed light on the darker recesses of the public finances, helping parliament and civil society to hold the government to account for its management of fiscal policy.”

However, the OBR will not be given the job of providing an independent check on the policies of opposition parties, as proposed by Labour in the runup to the general election.

Sir Dave Ramsden, the Treasury’s senior economic adviser, rejected that suggestion as part of a review into the OBR’s operations he carried out for the chancellor. He also suggested several changes to the OBR’s operations, including urging it to work with government departments to improve the economic models they use to predict the consequences of their policy decisions.

The Treasury will announce the funding plans for the OBR at November’s spending review, and Chote said he hoped the chancellor would provide him with the necessary resources to continue holding the government to account.