UK government borrowing higher than forecast

Government borrowing was higher than forecast in the last financial year, according to official figures.

Borrowing – the difference between spending and tax income – reached £120.7bn in the year to March, the Office for National Statistics said.

While it is lower than the previous year, it was £6.6bn more than the government’s forecaster predicted.

The higher-than-expected figure could limit a further pre-election tax cut, analysts said.

“If the chancellor was hoping March’s figures would provide more scope for tax cuts at a fiscal event later this year, he will have been disappointed,” said Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics.

The government’s independent forecasting body, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), had predicted borrowing over the year would be £114.1bn.

A general election has to be held before the end of January 2025, and there has been speculation that the government will seek to cut taxes again later this year before voters head to the polling stations.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reduced National Insurance by 2p in the pound in the spring Budget following a 2p cut announced in last year’s Autumn Statement. The OBR estimated that each cut will cost the government nearly £10bn.

Despite the higher-than-expected borrowing figure, Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said he still expected the chancellor to cut taxes again before an election.

However, he added that the next government would “face a tricky choice between raising taxes to fix creaking public services or holding the line on the chancellor’s recent tax cuts”.

“We suspect whoever the next government is will end up pushing through at least some tax rises to balance the books.”

Jessica Barnaby, ONS deputy director for public sector finances, said that over the past year government spending was up by about £58bn “with increased spending on public services and benefits outstripping large reductions in interest payable and energy support scheme costs”.

“But with public sector income up £66bn, overall, the deficit still fell,” she said.

Borrowing in March alone was £11.9bn, which was £4.7bn less than a year earlier but still higher than analysts had expected.

Total debt – which is the overall amount of money owed by the government that has built up over years – was £2.7 trillion at the end of March.

That is the equivalent of 98.3% of the size of the UK’s economy as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), remaining at levels last seen in the early 1960s, the ONS said.

A Treasury spokesman said: “Debt increased in recent years because we rightly protected millions of jobs during Covid and paid half of people’s energy bills after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent bills skyrocketing.”

He added that the government “must stick to the plan to get debt falling”.