The Growth Commission have come out swinging against the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as its forecast ahead of the budget, which, as usual, predicts a limited “headroom” for the Chancellor. Foretelling doom and gloom results in a tightened Treasury and squeezed taxpayers’ wallets…

The group has come out with an alternative forecast. If public sector productivity is brought back to pre-Covid levels, they project £60 billion of headroom over 4 years. Douglas McWilliams, co-chairman of the Growth Commission, tells Guido:

“OBR has claimed that the big rise in public spending caused by the loss in productivity is baked in, we reject that notion and we also believe it’s not the OBR’s role to make that kind of judgement on policy matter in public. Their forecasts haven’t been brilliant, we do not think its the case that we should assume high spending . It is not their role as a non-partisan body to get involved in political decision making.”

The Chancellor should just look back at Guido’s continued coverage of the OBR’s credibility deficit. A reminder: the sum total of growth misjudgements in the OBR’s one-year budget forecasts is £558 billion between 2010 and 2023. Even the OBR’s chairman Richard Hughes recently came out conceding their forecasts are a “work of fiction”. And that’s not the first time they’ve admitted their numbers – which lead to the beancounters taking more money off your paycheque – are wrong…

When the OBR predict tax cuts will “cost” too much, it’s no wonder our economy is stalling. If the Tories truly want to promote growth, they’ll need to get rid of their own creation…