Economic Affairs Committee to kick off new national debt sustainability inquiry with first evidence session

At 3pm on Tuesday 12 December 2023, as part of its new inquiry on the sustainability of the UK’s national debt, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee will hear evidence from:

• Professor Jagjit Chadha, Director at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)
• Martin Slater, Emeritus Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford.

This evidence session, which is open to the public, will be held in Committee Room 4 of the House of Lords. It will also be streamed live on Parliament TV.

Questions the committee is likely to cover in this session include:

• Does the metric of debt as a percentage of GDP adequately capture sustainability?
• How does the UK’s national debt compare with other developed nations in terms of sustainability?
• What factors will determine the sustainability of our national debt over the medium to longer term?
• What is the market’s appetite for UK public debt?
• What implications does the structure of the UK’s national debt have for its short and longer-term funding?

More about the How sustainable is our national debt? inquiry

UK public sector net debt, often referred to as ‘national debt’, currently stands at just under 100 per cent of GDP.

The UK’s growth outlook remains weak; quantitative easing has significantly increased the sensitivity of the UK’s debt to changes in short-term interest rates; and it is unclear whether the Government’s fiscal rule, as it relates to the national debt, is fit for purpose.

On Friday 8 December 2023 the committee published its call for evidence. The deadline for written submissions is Friday 9 February 2024.

The committee’s inquiry will investigate whether the UK’s national debt is on a sustainable path; if not, what steps are required; and whether the Government’s fiscal rule regarding the national debt is meaningful.