Budget watchdog finds £9.5bn shortfall in previous government’s spending plans

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The Office for Budget Responsibility has uncovered £9.5 billion in spending pressures that it was not made aware of ahead of Jeremy Hunt’s fiscal statement in March, and has said that its judgment on spending would have been “materially different” had it had access to this information. Rachel Reeves’ Budget on Wednesday afternoon sought to address what ministers have called the “£22 billion black hole” in the public finances, however, the OBR’s chairman has said that the Government’s additions to the spending plans this year represent a combination of their own policies and bridging that £9.5 billion gap. Asked whether the £22 billion figure represented the £9.5 billion they had identified plus extrapolation by the Government, Mr Hughes said: “What we do do is try and forecast government spending and when we were putting that forecast together back in March, the Treasury had information about £9.5 billion worth of pressures on public spending that we were not aware of.” He added: “Because they didn’t disclose that information there’s no way of knowing how different our forecast public spending would have been back in March. “It would have been materially higher, that’s all we can say.” Mr Hughes had earlier told the same briefing that “in this Government’s Budget they’ve added around £23 billion to departmental expenditure limits in this financial year, but this reflects a combination of the government’s decision to fund some of those pressures as well as new policies announced by this government since March.” Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Hughes said that “nothing in our review was a legitimisation of that £22billion”.