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IFS - Summer Budget 2015

Chancellor George Osborne will deliver the first Budget of this parliament on Wednesday 8 July 2015 – the first Budget from a Conservative government for almost 19 years. 

The Summer Budget is likely to set out what changes the government wants to make to tax, benefits and overall public spending as it looks to deal with the deficit.  

As always, the Institute for Fiscal Studies will be presenting its analysis of the Budget the following day. Details are below, along with background materials on the challenges for the government in the Budget and some helpful tools and resources.

IFS Post-Budget Analysis

The day after the Summer Budget, on Thursday 9 July, the IFS will hold its regular lunchtime briefing in the Brunei Gallery at SOAS, University of London.

IFS researchers will present their analysis of what the Chancellor says on the public finances, departmental spending, tax and the benefit system.

Registration is from 12.30pm and the briefing will start at 1.00pm. A sandwich lunch will be provided during registration.

Find out more and book your place

All presentations will be available on this page after the event.

All you need to know

Background materials from IFS researchers ahead of the Summer Budget.

• Public spending: more cuts to come

The Conservative Party manifesto committed to eliminating the deficit by 2018–19, largely through reductions in public spending. David Cameron has implied that these cuts would be relatively easy to achieve because they mean “saving £1 a year in every £100 that government spends”. Unfortunately, growth in some areas of spending, and promises to protect other areas, mean that even if the government delivers on its commitment to find £12 billion of cuts to social security spending, unprotected departmental spending could be facing cuts of 15% over the next three years.

Ahead of the Budget and Spending Review to follow, this Observation – and an associated presentation given at an event jointly organised with the Institute for Government – sets out what departments should be preparing themselves for. AStorify captured the discussion.

• Benefit cuts: where might they come from?

The Conservatives’ victory in the general election means that we should shortly find out how they will find the additional benefit cuts to which they have committed. This observation, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, briefly summarises previous IFS analysis of the context for these choices and the kinds of options that are on the table.

• Mobility of public and private sector workers

There were large cuts to the public workforce over the last parliament during a period of fiscal consolidation. The pace of public workforce cuts is likely to accelerate over the new parliament. A Briefing Note, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), looks at the movement between jobs, or ‘mobility’, of workers in the public and private sectors. It sets out the extent to which reductions in the public workforce to date have been delivered by freezing recruitment of new workers and not replacing workers who move to non-employment, and through more workers moving from the public sector to the private sector than moving in the other direction. The main findings are summarised in a press release.

Be the Chancellor

How would you deal with the deficit? Would you borrow more or spend less? Would you protect spending on health or overseas aid?

This interactive tool allows you to act as Chancellor, set your own Budget and see the consequences of your choices.

Visit our election website for IFS analysis carried out in the run-up to the election.

 

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