{"id":96229,"date":"2026-10-08T09:16:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T08:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=96229"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T08:16:53","slug":"the-fiscal-headroom-nonsense-is-being-rolled-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/10\/08\/the-fiscal-headroom-nonsense-is-being-rolled-out\/","title":{"rendered":"The fiscal headroom nonsense is being rolled out."},"content":{"rendered":"

The FT said in an email this morning, linked to this article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Iran war has blown a near-\u00a312bn hole in Britain\u2019s public finances, according to FT estimates, forcing chancellor John Healey to lean on Budget tax rises and spending cuts to fund efforts to ease the cost of living.<\/p>\n

Higher borrowing costs and rising inflation have probably cut the UK chancellor\u2019s fiscal room for manoeuvre from the \u00a323.6bn forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility in March to about \u00a312bn, according to the estimates.<\/p>\n

The reduction in headroom means Healey could be forced to announce painful tax increases and spending cuts in the Autumn Budget to retain the confidence of the bond markets and pay for measures to ease the cost of living for households.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is total nonsense. This infographic explains that:<\/p>\n

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What the FT is faithfully reporting is, then, total drivel. Fiscal headroom is a work of fiction used to enforce austerity to create austerity:<\/p>\n

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I think that one needs updating!<\/p>\n

All of this happens within the context of fiscal rules:<\/p>\n

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That's another one that looks like it needs revisiting. But the message is clear: we are being told utter nonsense, and the FT happily reproduces it.<\/p>\n

Why is the question to ask? Why all of this? What is this mechanism of control all for?<\/p>\n

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How to expand these images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Press CTRL or Command and the Plus (+) key on your keyboard to zoom in. Press CTRL or Command and the 0 (zero) key together to restore the screen to normal.<\/em><\/p>\n

How to download this image<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If you right-click the image, you should be given the option to download it to your computer. So long as you do so without the intent to make a profit, you may do so without further permission. Commercial use requires consent. But if you just want to share it, do so with whoever and wherever you want. That is the purpose of these infographics.<\/em><\/p>\n

The image library<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

There is a library of these images. It is available here<\/a>. All downloads are free, but donations help our work.<\/em><\/p>\n

AI use<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I wrote this infographic. I used AI to create the final image.<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FT said in an email this morning, linked to this article: The Iran war has blown a near-\u00a312bn hole in Britain\u2019s public finances, according
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,46,127,136,204,35,16,240,147,224,106,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bonds-2","category-bonds","category-budget","category-city-of-london","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-ethics","category-images","category-inequality","category-neoliberalism","category-politics","category-politics-of-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96234,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96229\/revisions\/96234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}