Given that the new Office of Budget Responsibility hasn’t even been enshrined in law properly yet, and barely has a sign on the office door, losing its chairman this early doesn’t look good. Sir Alan Budd has let it be known he is off in a sudden and somewhat mysterious move, leaving the organisation head-less in the run up to the Spending Review. A tad embarrassing for the Chancellor as despite the three month contract Budd was on, it was expected he would be in the post for rather longer. A headache now as a suitable replacement needs to be sought urgently. There are no obvious candidates.

Giving up the right to publicly crunch the numbers was a big jump for Osborne and it has already contradicted his message early on regarding growth figures. Budd’s jumping ship so early doesn’t exactly scream confidence in the new regime.

UPDATE : Some speculation in the City that the 73 year-old Budd prefers comfortable and lucrative board positions to stressful, politically charged Treasury work with austere financial compensation.  He previously described the OBR job as “the most exciting challenge of my professional life”. Too exciting perhaps…