Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the Spending Review 2020 on the UK’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The OBR set out their latest forecasts of the economy and public finances in in their November Economic and Fiscal Outlook^[1]. The forecasts take into account the effect of measures announced in Spending Review 2020.

The OBR note that “real GDP would have taken a materially-weaker near-term path”^[2] in the absence of measures announced since the Summer Economic Update. They also note that “in the medium term, the economic recovery is supported by the strong growth in public investment announced in the March Budget”^[3].

[1] OBR Economic and Fiscal Outlook November 2020 https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-november-2020/

[2] Page 32, Box 2.1: The impact of fiscal policy on GDP growth and unemployment

[3] Page 12, paragraph 1.24