Treasury Committee Defends OBR Against Reform Pressures

A cross-party group of MPs on the Treasury Committee rejected recent calls to fundamentally reform the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The committee argued that the OBR should not be blamed for the government's need to make difficult fiscal choices in an environment of tight public finances. While rejecting sweeping changes, members suggested that ministers consider instructing the OBR to produce a 10-year economic forecast alongside its existing five- and 50-year projections, and called for parliamentary debate on the OBR’s annual fiscal-risk and sustainability report.

The Guardian

The OBR was created in 2010 by then-Chancellor George Osborne to deliver independent forecasts of economic growth and to assess the fiscal impact of government policies. Since its inception, the body has faced criticism from both the left and right: critics claim it has underestimated the effects of austerity measures and, more recently, overestimated growth potential. The latest scrutiny follows the December 2025 resignation of former chair Richard Hughes after a leak of the OBR’s budget assessment.

The Guardian

Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier said the OBR’s forecasts become especially important when government spending operates on razor-thin margins, emphasizing that this reflects chancellor decision-making rather than OBR overreach. She urged the new chancellor and the wider administration to preserve the OBR’s independent voice and to engage regularly on its role. Hillier also noted that exploring longer-term forecasts, despite their uncertainty, could help break a cycle of short-term thinking that she believes hampers the country’s progress.

The Guardian

• “The fiscal rules, and therefore the OBR’s forecasts, become more important when government spending operates on razor-thin margins. That is a feature of decision-making by chancellors, not overreach by the OBR.” — Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the committee

The Guardian