Budget 2011

Briefing and analysis

Chancellor George Osborne delivered his Budget on Wednesday 23 March. On Thursday 24 March the Institute for Fiscal Studies held a lunchtime briefing. The presentation provided an opportunity to hear a considered view of the Chancellor's announcements from Institute staff. Slides are available below.

Useful publications and resources

Budget 2011 analysis and presentation slides

• Budget 2011: the big news is the old news (Paul Johnson, opening remarks)
• Public finances: weaker outlook reduces room for manoeuvre (Gemma Tetlow, presentation slides)
• Personal tax and benefit changes (James Browne, presentation slides)
• Business taxes and 'the plan for growth' (Helen Miller, presentation slides)
• Indirect and environmental taxes (Andrew Leicester, presentation slides)

On Wednesday 23 March we published an initial analysis of Chancellor George Osborne's 2011 Budget statement.

Green Budget 2011

• The IFS Green Budget 2011 - produced in collaboration with Barclays Capital and Barclays Wealth - focused on the policy challenges confronting the Chancellor of the Exchequer in advance of the 2011 Budget. IFS researchers examine the outlook for the public finances, assess a number of the key issues relating to the planned public spending cuts and discuss possible decisions on taxation. Barclays analysts look at the outlook for the macro-economy, and the implications for markets.

Spending Review 2010

• Our analysis of the Spending Review examined the impact on public finances, public services and the distribution of income.

Public finances

• An IFS observation examines the debate around fuel duty and what implications any change in policy would have for the public finances.
• Disease and cure in the UK: The fiscal impact of the crisis and the policy response (a presentation given by Carl Emmerson at a European Commission seminar in June 2010) examines what we know about the effect of the financial crisis and recession on the public finances and the proposed fiscal repair measures.
• Before the recent general election Robert Chote, Rowena Crawford, Carl Emmerson and Gemma Tetlow examined what the three main UK parties said (explicitly and implicitly) about the scale, timing and composition of the fiscal repair job ahead, teasing out the differences and similarities.

Welfare benefits and living standards

• In Poverty projections between 2010-11 and 2013-14: a post-Budget 2011 update we provide projections of relative and absolute income poverty among children and working-age adults in the UK for each year between 2010-11 and 2013-14. This constitutes an update of IFS projections published in December 2010.
• In an IFS Briefing Note Living standards during the recession we estimate that in the three years from 2008 to 2011 real household incomes will have fallen by 1.6% - the biggest three year drop in real living standards since 1980-83.
• An IFS Briefing Note Universal Credit: a preliminary analysis analyses Universal Credit as set out in the government's White Paper, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works.
• IFS held a briefing on the Universal Credit on 12 January 2011.
• Poverty and inequality in the UK 2010 assessed the changes to average incomes, inequality and poverty that have occurred since 1979, with a particular focus on the changes that have occurred in the latest year of data (2008-09) and since 1996-97.

Public-service pensions

• In an IFS observation Public service pension reforms: an improved structure, but impact on generosity and cost as yet unknown we look at Lord Hutton's final report on public service pensions and examine the possible effects of reform.
• In an IFS observation Public-service pensions: more reform needed we look at Lord Hutton's interim report on public service pensions and suggest key issues to consider when future reforms are recommended.

Education

• An IFS Briefing Note offers an analysis of higher education reforms and assesses how progressive they are.
• Following the Government's announcement that it planned to withdraw the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) in favour of a more efficient and cost-effective scheme, an IFS observation An efficient maintenance allowance? examines the impact and effectiveness of EMA payments.