Speeches by Yang.

“Is there space for more narrowing, or do you believe the gap has been fully closed now?”

“At Budget day, the OBR announced that it was going to use a new higher threshold for scoring the impacts of policy on economic capacity. This higher threshold would have ruled out the majority of policy changes scored under your Conservative predecessor. Did the Treasury discuss this change of policy with the OBR, and …”

“I presume the Treasury collects its own scorings of those measures that do not meet the OBR’s new thresholds?”

“I want to move on to special educational needs and disabilities funding. At the Budget, you announced that this would no longer be borne by local authorities, but from central departmental spending. The OBR says that that will cost around £5.6 billion. Do you and the Treasury accept that number? Will this be put on one…”

“Chancellor, in your Budget speech you said that “a fair society is one where the wealthiest pay their fair share” and you discussed “narrowing the gap between the tax on income from assets and income from work”. Is there more of that gap left to be narrowed?”

“Sure, but what if you were not looking at it in the wider context, but in that specific context?”

“Sir Dave, I understand that value for money from the taxpayer’s perspective is not part of your consideration in terms of the principles of running of the QT programme, but as one last yes/no question to finish off this round: when you sell long-term gilts at relatively high yields—in other words, low prices—do you agr…”

“I am very familiar with that.”

“To go back to the point about market participants’ views, in 2022 you asked them to estimate their sense of the impact of active QT on gilt yields. Since then, you have stopped asking them that question through the formal process of the survey, but certainly this year, and I think in previous years, investors have writ…”

“You did it twice in 2022, but you have not asked the same question since.”

“Sir Dave, I have a question about your point about how QT is seen by market participants. In the early rounds of QT in 2022, you surveyed market participants for their estimates as to the impact, and you have stopped doing that. Is there a reason why you have stopped doing that?”

“Dr Dhingra, as another external member of the MPC, do you agree with Dr Mann’s position that the Bank’s estimate of the impact of QT on yields is an underestimate?”

“Sir Dave, do you want to come in?”

“How much more would you say—twice or three times?”

“Do you think it is more than the Bank’s estimate of 15 to 25 basis points?”

“When you say that it is an executive decision, what do you mean by that?”

“I note that the MPC has, for the first time, split a vote on quantitative tightening, which affects the pace at which the Bank sells Government bonds. Dr Mann, you stated in your decision that you are concerned about upward pressure on medium-term gilt yields. Could you explain what caused your concern?”

“T4. Data from the millennium cohort study suggests that over half of cases of young people not in education, employment or training are attributable to persistent childhood poverty and adverse experiences. I recently visited Starting Point, a charity that helps young people in Reading back into work, and I heard about …”

“Professor Allas, you have a particular interest in NHS productivity growth. What is behind the UK’s low productivity growth in public sector work? What would you have liked to see in the Budget that could start to remedy that?”

“I have a particular constituency interest in this because in Reading we have been waiting for the Royal Berkshire Hospital to be rebuilt for many a year now. You have done work comparing capital intensity between different countries. Is capital intensity a problem for the public estate in the UK? How would you seek to …”