Ref: BBC Click
Where does the £22billion claim come from?
The £21.9bn figure was in an audit published by the Treasury at the end of July, external – just a few weeks after Labour came to power.
The document looked at areas of public spending which are set to go over budget this year, including:
- Public sector pay rises
- Overspending on certain projects, such as supporting the asylum system
- Unforeseen costs, such as inflation being higher than expected
- Military assistance to Ukraine
To put the figure into context, in the Spring Budget, external it was expected that total public spending this year would be £1,226 bn. The £22bn is a small proportion of that.
But Gemma Tetlow from the Institute for Government think tank told BBC More or Less: “looking back at history and the amount that the government tends to overspend its budgets in previous years, £22bn would be quite a large number”.
To cover some of the shortfall, Chancellor Rachel Reeves made several announcements:
- Ending winter fuel payments for those not receiving pension credit
- Cancelling infrastructure projects, such as the road tunnel near Stonehenge
- Scrapping previous government measures, such as the planned cap on social care charges from October 2025.
Document below is from the Office for Budget Responsibility
