Your editorial on the role of the Office for Budget Responsibility (9 March) completely misses the point of what parliament has asked us to do.
We have been asked to assess the outlook for the public finances on the basis of the government’s tax and spending policies as it currently expresses them, not on the basis of how we think they will or should evolve.
This promotes transparency and accountability. First, it forces governments to be explicit about what their policies are. Second, it allows us to explain their potential consequences. As you say, we pointed out in December that the coalition could only achieve the budget surplus it aimed for in 2019-20 by assuming that it would cut public services spending to its lowest share of national income since before the war.
This has prompted a lively debate about whether this would be desirable and politically achievable, and what the alternatives might be – questions that rightly lie beyond our remit. It is surely better to hold governments to account for what they say they will do, than for what we guess they might.
Robert Chote
Chairman, Office for Budget Responsibility
