OBR to give evidence to Lords inquiry on UK debt sustainability

At 3pm on Tuesday 23 January 2024, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee will hear evidence from:

• Richard Hughes, Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility
• Tom Josephs, Member of the Budget Responsibility Committee, Office for Budget Responsibility.

This evidence session, which is open to the public, will be held in Committee Room 4 of the House of Lords. It will also be streamed live on Parliament TV.

Questions the committee is likely to cover in this session include:

• What are your key observations in response to the committee’s question on the sustainability of the UK’s national debt?
• Does the metric of debt as a percentage of GDP adequately capture sustainability of the national debt?
• What implications does the structure of the UK’s national debt have for its short and longer-term funding?
• Is the Government’s fiscal rule meaningful as regards the national debt?
• Is enough attention paid to the structural slowdown in the growth of productive potential as a source of deteriorating debt dynamics?
• What is the market’s appetite for UK public debt?

More about the How sustainable is our national debt? inquiry

UK public sector net debt, often referred to as ‘national debt’, currently stands at just under 100 per cent of GDP.

The UK’s growth outlook remains weak; quantitative easing has significantly increased the sensitivity of the UK’s debt to changes in short-term interest rates; and it is unclear whether the Government’s fiscal rule, as it relates to the national debt, is fit for purpose.

In December 2023 the committee published its call for evidence. The deadline for written submissions is Friday 9 February 2024.

The committee’s inquiry will investigate whether the UK’s national debt is on a sustainable path; if not, what steps are required; and whether the Government’s fiscal rule regarding the national debt is meaningful.