UK authorities borrowing rose in April, confounding expectations of a fall, forward of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending assessment subsequent month.
Figures revealed on Thursday by the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics confirmed that the general public sector’s whole spending was £20.2bn greater than its earnings for the primary month of the brand new tax 12 months, up from a shortfall of £19.1bn in April 2024.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that authorities borrowing would fall to £17.9bn final month.
Reeves will set out detailed expenditure plans for particular person authorities departments in her June 11 spending assessment — the primary by a Labour authorities for the reason that 2000s.
She is underneath strain to satisfy her fiscal rule to stability day-to-day spending with revenues by 2029-30 whereas enhancing public companies and spurring progress.
The chancellor’s slender room for manoeuvre, which was final calculated at £9.9bn, is ready to be put underneath additional strain by the financial affect of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
In a memo despatched to Reeves earlier than her Spring Assertion in late March, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner urged the chancellor to make additional tax will increase reasonably than slicing public spending
Thursday’s ONS information additionally confirmed authorities borrowing hit £148.3bn within the 2024/25 fiscal 12 months — a revision of the ONS’s earlier estimate of £151.9bn, however nonetheless £11bn above the £137.3bn forecast by the Workplace for Finances Duty, the UK’s fiscal watchdog.
