Government Debt
Debate between Lord Pitt-Watson and Lord Bishop of Hereford(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Pitt-Watson (Lab)
My noble friend Lord Barber is absolutely correct on this; indeed, he has huge expertise in the area. Too often all of us, from all parties, announce inputs and do not think about outputs. On the question of public sector productivity, I am not even sure that we measure outputs correctly.
The Lord Bishop of Hereford
My Lords, a recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research projects that debt interest payments will increase from the current 10% of revenue to 20% by 2075. The decisions that we take today about taxation and spending should be taken with regard to our moral obligations to the generation that follows us. What assessment have the Government made of the extent to which today’s debt interest payments transfer the burden of current spending to future generations of taxpayers?
Lord Pitt-Watson (Lab)
There are numbers that can project out for 50 years and which would leave future generations with a potentially very large debt. They are, of course, extremely sensitive figures. The first thing that the Government have to do is to have the fiscal discipline that brings the debt down. As I said, last year we had the lowest borrowing for six years, and for the first time since 2004 we are projected to borrow less than the OECD average. I hope that is at least a start, and we can go on to think about where we go to 2070 as we move forward.