‘If the UK economy is doing so well, why do I still feel so hard up?’ is the question George Osborne needs to answer in today’s budget.
It’s one that the politics of 14 months before the general election won’t let him answer: he’s not delivered what he promised. Public borrowing will this year be almost twice the level he predicted in 2010, and the debt to GDP ratio is still rising and expected to peak at almost twice the pre-crisis level. Meanwhile real household incomes are still six per cent below the pre-crisis level, and poorer households have been hit by an annual inflation rate calculated to be one per cent higher than for others.
And he probably won’t want to spell out that the cost of his inability to keep his 2010 promises is that we’re now only half way through the austerity package. What’s still to come would mean cuts of 17 per cent.
Predictions are that he will announce some welcome, business-friendly measures to tackle long term problems of low productivity and boost exports.
However, we will also hear a smokescreen to cover up for his inability to answer the central question of the cost of living crisis which Ed Miliband has put so effectively at the political centre stage.
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Sally Keeble will be providing commentary for Progress’ 2014 budget liveblog. George Osborne is due to announce his budget at 12.20
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Sally Keeble is a former minister and former member of the Treasury select committee. She is Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Northampton North
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Photo: HM Treasury