<p><p>Attempts to brake or reverse the growth of public spending in the UK are not new: Adam Smith discussed the problem over 200 years ago. So what can we learn from earlier periods of restraint or cutback in public spending? </p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>This paper briefly reviews two key historical cases, the 'Geddes Axe' era of 1920s and the 1975-1985 era which included the 1976 IMF loan and subsequent attempts to restrain public spending under both Labour and Conservative governments. It also analyzes public spending in relation to the economic cycle over the last 60 years.</p></p>
Authors

Deputy Director
Carl, a Deputy Director, is an editor of the IFS Green Budget, an expert on the UK pension system and sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee.

Christopher Hood

Ruth Dixon
Report details
- ISBN
- 978-0-9562858-0-5
- Publisher
- ESRC Public Services Programme
Suggested citation
R, Dixon and C, Emmerson and C, Hood. (2009). Public spending in hard times. London: ESRC Public Services Programme. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/public-spending-hard-times (accessed: 10 February 2025).
Related documents
More from IFS
Understand this issue

What options does Rachel Reeves have for the Budget?
We explore the options the Chancellor has in the forthcoming Budget.
16 October 2024

Rachel Reeves' spending audit explained
29 July 2024

Tough questions will face the election winners
10 June 2024
Policy analysis

Rachel Reeves’s new year predicament
Rising interest rates could put the government on track to miss its fiscal rules. What are the Chancellor’s options?
10 January 2025

Rising interest rates erode razor-thin margin against fiscal targets
If a recent rise in borrowing costs proved persistent, it will make it even harder for the Chancellor to continue to meet her main fiscal rule.
9 January 2025

Autumn Budget 2024: initial IFS response
IFS Director Paul Johnson responds to the overall picture for taxation, spending and the public finances in the Autumn 2024 Budget.
30 October 2024
Academic research

A monetary-fiscal theory of sudden inflations
20 December 2022

Rewriting the fiscal rules
12 October 2021

Spending Review 2021: plans, promises and predicaments
12 October 2021