Office for Budget Responsibility

Thérèse Coffey Excerpts

Monday 14th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I will set out measures in the Budget, and the hon. Gentleman will have to wait for that. He highlights the point that I was making—that the forecast is based on the plans inherited from the previous Government. It identifies huge spending cuts, but they never told us where those cuts would fall. I am sure that he wants a future in the Labour party, so perhaps he can take a lead over some of the leadership contenders and tell us what those cuts would be.

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend support the work of the OBR in assessing offsheet balance liabilities, including such things as PFI and unfunded public sector pension liabilities? I hope that he will recognise that it is important that we put all the debts that Labour has generated over the years on the balance sheet once and for all so we know how we can pay for them.

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is right. On page 58 of the report, Sir Alan and the fellow members of his committee set out some of the liabilities that need to be factored into longer-term fiscal forecasts, which include an ageing population, unfunded public service pension liabilities and the PFI contracts. They point out that some £43 billion of PFI contracts are off the national balance sheet.