Debt Rule To Change To Fund Major Projects

[naomi24]

//At the moment, the amount of money the government can borrow for investment is restrained by the amount of debt it has.

 

There is a self-imposed rule that debt – the total amount the government owes – must fall in five years’ time.

 

But the Treasury has effectively confirmed it will loosen the target in order to borrow billions more to invest in a range of major projects.//

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvglyxn0444o

 

The government will borrow billions more.  What could possibly go wrong?

[dave50]

Wish they would referring to government spending as investment. Say what it is, it's spending other people's money. 

 

[ToraToraTora]

Good ole tax and spend labour! As usual the next Tory government will have to sort out their mess.

[ToraToraTora]

Sounds very Keynesian to me, high inflation + interest rate hikes on the way. Can the country survive a full term of Labour?

[Untitled]

investing in infrastructure can improve this country's productivity and is a necessity given the extent to which basic public services have been neglected over the past 14 years.

i agree with this measure... we shall see who is right. 

[ToraToraTora]

we already pay £102bn in debt interest, that's nearly double the entire defence budget. Can we afford more debt?

[Ryzen]

Are they going to finish the train set no one wanted first?

[Untitled]

how will we pay it off with such low productivity? we have crappy public transport, rubbish wifi and fake 5g. schools in parts of the country are literally falling apart because of poor maintenance. you can't spend your way to growth but you can't cut your way to it either... britain's infrastructure needs improving. 

[Peter Pedant]

If the treasurymandarins cd run the country they wd have done so

[ToraToraTora]

11:45 I agree just cut the unnecessary carp first. Eg

- Abandon the "net zero" delusion

- Cut all foriegn aid

- Cut the Work shy scum benefit to the bone make them get jobs.

- Expel the invaders by any means necessary

- Reboot the NHS by having a total clear out.

etc

[Untitled]

none of those things will make the uk's economy more productive

https://www.productivity.ac.uk/news/what-explains-the-uks-productivity-problem/

[Untitled]

i would suggest we stop allowing american hedge funds to buy up some of our most valuable companies and drain their profits out of our economy... companies like Clarks used to invest hugely in the communities around them. Now all that profit goes to the US 

[gulliver1]

Well Labour need to borrow at least £22 billion  to cover the black hole in the economy left by the former ousted Tory Govt.

[barry1010]

As expected 

[Untitled]

borrowing alone would just make the hole bigger gulliver... but they do need to generate growth and investment can do that if it is done correctly

[Deskdiary]

"Well Labour need to borrow at least £22 billion to cover the SUPPOSED black hole in the economy left by the former ousted Tory Govt."

 

I've corrected your post for you Gulliver. Your welcome.

[youngmafbog]

Isnt it now £40 Bn?

Borrowing more is the road to disaster.  We need to cut our cloth on things we dont really need at the moment, much as higlighted by TTT above.

We do need to invest in infrastructure but it needs to be done without borrowing which will end up very inflationary. Also of course infrastructure does not generate growth in the short term.

 

[Old_Geezer]

Borrowing to invest in well considered investment with readonable expectations of getting cleared within the expected time, isn't necessarily wrong. Doing so when already in debt is less comfortable. Borrowing just to try to be popular and spending it on things that don't have longer term benefits, is a bad idea. We'll just have to see where it all goes.

[Old_Geezer]

...reasonable...

[douglas9401]

Infrastructure is it? Here's a part that I have a particular interest in, driving it twice a week as I do.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyl7kr11gyo

When the first set of signs went up, years ago now, it advertised that the whole road would be dualled by 2025. Those signs went the way of all things when the European money vanished and the Nats, for it was they, installed average speed cameras over the entire road from Dunblane (already dualled) to about 10  miles from Inverness and at the same time raised the speed limit for HGVs to 50mph as a 'trial'.

Fast forward to today and next to nothing has been built, the HGV trial speed limit has been re-signed as the HGV speed limit because it's very cheap to do and now the wee men in their bunnets stare through their steering wheels gripped tight as to be unshakable and hold everybody up on the two way sections before disappearing to the horizon on the dualled parts because they miss the HGV part, the limit for cars being 60mph.

Anyway, you'll see from the link just how embarrassingly far back the project has been push and it stands as a monument to over-promoted town councillors in a pretend parliament endeavouring to organise a p-up in a brewery.

Infrastructure? Sub-contract it to China and be done with it.