More ambition needed to repair public finances, but don't squeeze too soon

<p>Whoever forms the Government after the forthcoming general election should put in place a fiscal tightening more ambitious over the next Parliament than that set out in the Pre-Budget Report (PBR), but without putting the recovery at undue risk with significant extra tax increases or public spending cuts in the coming year, researchers from the Institute for Fiscal Studies argue in this year's IFS Green Budget. </p><p> </p><p>We are delighted to have produced this year's Green Budget in collaboration with Barclays Capital and Barclays Wealth. We are very grateful to them for their support and for the chapters they have contributed. We are also grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council for supporting much of the day-to-day research at IFS that underpins the analysis in this volume.</p>