Robert Chote

About Robert Chote

Robert Chote is chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility. Previously he was Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

No new taxes? By the Institute for Fiscal Studies

14 April 2010 | Robert Chote

The Conservative manifesto did not tell us anything about their tax and spending plans we did not already know. In particular, it was no more explicit about how much more ambitious the Conservatives would be than the Government in reducing the budget deficit over the medium term. The Conservatives promised only “to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over the Parliament”, a vague goal that the Government would argue that it is on course to achieve already. Read more...

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Tax and spend: the unanswered questions, by Robert Chote, Rowena Crawford and Carl Emmerson

13 April 2010 | Robert Chote
The key question for the next Government is what size and combination of public spending cuts and tax increases to implement to repair our public finances. Anyone looking for a more detailed answer from Labour in its manifesto will have been disappointed. The party listed plenty of new things it would like to do, but was no clearer about where the spending cuts would fall. And it listed a few tax increases that it promised not to implement, but left the door wide open to many others.

Specifically on tax, the manifesto promised that: “We will not raise the basic, higher and new top rates of tax in the next Parliament and we renew our pledge not to extend VAT to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares.” Read more...

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Tighter than thou, by Robert Chote at the IFS

14 September 2009 | Robert Chote

There is a lot we do not yet know about how Labour and the Conservatives would go about repairing Britain’s battered public finances over the next few years. But last week’s speeches by Conservative leader David Cameron and Chancellor Alistair Darling at least highlight a sharp difference of opinion over what should be done next year. Institute for Fiscal Studies director Robert Chote explains why the picture is quite not as straightforward as either makes out. Read more...

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