Open Letter to Jeremy Hunt
Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer
HM Treasury
1 Horse Guards Road
Westminster
London
SW1A 2HQ
Dear Chancellor,
We are writing to you ahead of your Autumn Statement on 17th November to urge you to take this opportunity to invest in the UK’s public services, social safety net, and clean energy infrastructure and not to undermine the economy with another programme of real terms public spending cuts.
The financial crisis occasioned by the ‘mini-Budget’ on 23rd September has significantly undermined the UK’s economic outlook. This year, we face the twin challenges of a deepening recession and period of high inflation, which will exacerbate an already devastating cost of living crisis for millions.
Supporting people and the economy to overcome this crisis as quickly as possible should be the priority of government economic policy at this time.
Household finances across the country are in crisis, our public finances are not. The UK debt to GDP ratio may have risen in response to additional borrowing during the pandemic, but it is not high by international standards. While borrowing costs have risen because of poor economic decisions made recently, they still remain low by international standards. There is significant potential to increase revenue-raising through reforms to the tax system and increasing taxes on wealth. The UK deficit next year will be the second lowest in the G7 as a percentage of GDP.
Although the situation is not identical, the lessons from the imposition of austerity in the UK and across Europe post 2008 are clear. Spending cuts applied to an economy attempting to recover from an economic shock worsen the impact of that shock and cause lasting economic and social damage. The International Monetary Fund is amongst those stressing this lesson be learned by those governing advanced economies.
Imposing further spending cuts now would condemn the country to further years of economic stagnation and failing public services, and would constitute an act of incredible economic self-harm. Reducing government capital spending would be a false economy, starving our economy of the very investment that will be the foundation of our future economic growth.
Media reports of ‘fiscal black holes’ and the anticipation of the Office for Budgetary Responsibility’s verdict on the Autumn Statement risk falling into the trap of seeing the current economic situation through a narrow lens of budgetary balance, rather than the overall health of the economy. This narrow view leads to the false conclusion, widely reported in the media, that the government’s primary economic task is to cut spending until it is in compliance with the current fiscal rules.
Instead, we would urge you to find more flexibility in the current fiscal rules, for example extending or deprioritising the debt-to-GDP target.
To the extent that the deficit does need to be closed, we would urge you to look at revenue-raising measures that would begin to address the stark rise in inequality during the pandemic and its aftermath, including a proper windfall tax on energy company profits and the equalisation of capital gains and income tax rates so that those with the broadest shoulders bear the greatest burden.
As the new Stop the Squeeze campaign argues, there are different choices to be made, and these choices are popular across the political spectrum. Only 21% of those who voted for the Conservatives in 2019 think that cuts are an inevitable response to the current financial situation according to polling firm Opinium, while 62% of those voters think that the richest should pay more in tax.
As the Prime Minister argued in his Downing Street speech, these are the voters on whose mandate your government rests. We urge you to listen to them.
Yours sincerely,
Susan Himmelweit, Emeritus Professor of Economics, The Open University
Josh Ryan-Collins, Associate Professor in Economics and Finance, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Malcolm Sawyer, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Leeds
Steve Keen, Distinguished Research Fellow, UCL
David Vines, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College , Oxford University
Andrew Cumbers, Professor of Political Economy, University of Glasgow
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor, Oxford University
Jeanette Findlay, Professor of Economics, University of Glasgow
Lord Prem Sikka, Emeritus Professor, University of Essex and University of Sheffield
Henrietta Moore , Founder and Director, Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL
Maureen Mackintosh, Emeritus Professor of Economics, The Open University
Jason Hickel, Professor, London School of Economics
Diane Elson, Emeritus Professor, University of Essex
Rick Van Der Ploeg, Professor of Economics, University of Oxford
Engelbert Stockhammer, Professor of Political Economy, King's College London
Barbara Harriss-White, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College Oxford, Wolfson College, Oxford University
Michael Jacobs, Professor of Political Economy, University of Sheffield
Judith Heyer, Emeritus Economics Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford University
Dimitri Zenghelis, Special Advisor, Bennett Institute, University of Cambridge
Ann Pettifor, Director, Policy Research in Macroeconomics
Pritam Singh, Professor Emeritus, Oxford Brookes Business School
Frances Stewart, Profesor Emeritus of Development Economics, University of Oxford
Sergio Rossi, Professor of Economics, University of Fribourg
Aiora Zabala, Lecturer in Economics, The Open University
Lorena Lombardozzi, Senior Lecturer in Economics, The Open University
Jerome De Henau, Senior Lecturer in Economics, The Open University
Sue Konzelmann, Professor of Economics, Birkbeck, University of London
Kate Pickett, Professor of Epidemiology, University of York
Roberto Veneziani, Professor of Economics, Queen Mary University of London
Baseerit Nissah, Lecturer and Staff Tutor in Economics, The Open University
Antonio Rodriguez Gil, Economics Lecturer, University of Leeds
Christopher Cramer, Professor of the Political Economy of Development, SOAS, University of London
Alison Green, Senior Lecturer, The Open University
Jonquil Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance, The Open University
Kevin Deane, Senior Lecturer in Economics, The Open University
Daniele Tori, Lecturer in Finance, The Open University
Anthony Thirlwall, Professor of Applied Economics, University of Kent
Mimoza Shabani, Senior Lecturer in Financial Economics, University of East London
Janet Cole, Staff Tutor in Economics, The Open University
Kate Raworth, Co-founder, Doughnut Economics Action Lab
Patrick Allen, Chair, Progressive Economy Forum
Mehmet Ugur, Professor of Economics and Institutions, University of Greenwich
Stewart Lansley, Visiting Fellow, University of Bristol
Teresa Thorp, Retired Economist, Oxford University
Joshua Farley, Professor in Community Development and Applied Economics, University of Vermont
Ozlem Onaran, Professor of Economics, University of Greenwich
Leslie Huckfield, Lecturer in Business Management, Glasgow Caledonian University
Jo Michell, Associate Professor of Economics, University of the West of England
Mark Blyth, Professor of International Economics, Brown University
Richard Murphy, Professor of Accounting Practice, Sheffield University Management School
Diego Sánchez-Ancochea, Head of the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford
Hannah Bargawi, Reader in Economics, SOAS University of London
Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, SenIor Lecturer in Development Economics, SOAS University of London
Cyrus Bina, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Minnesota
Christine Cooper, Professor, Edinburgh University
Stephanie Manea, Lecturer in Economics, SOAS University of London
Elisa Van Waeyenberge, Professor of Development Economics, SOAS University of London
Natassia Nascimento, Teaching Fellow, SOAS University of London
Christina Laskaridis, Assistant Professor in Economics, The University of Oxford
Hugo Radice, Life Fellow, University of Leeds
Emilie Rutledge, Economics Lecturer, The Open University
Tony Yates, Independent Economist, former Professor of Economics, University of Birmingham
Laurence Jones-Williams, Director, Rethinking Economics International
Samuele Bibi, Assistant Professor in Economics, Northumbria University
Hanna Szymborska, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Birmingham City University
Stefanos Ioannou, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Oxford Brookes University
Jonathan Perraton, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Sheffield University
Plamen Ivanov, Senior Lecturer in Banking, University of Winchester
Michalis Nikiforos, Associate Professor, University of Geneva
Grahame Thompson, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, The Open University
Daniele Tori, Lecturer in Finance, The Open University
Philip Whyman, Professor of Economics, University of Central Lancashire
Imko Meyenburg, Senior Lecturer in Economics and International Business, Anglia Ruskin University
M. Kerem Coban, Assistant Professor, Kadir Has University
Jose Pérez-Montiel, Professor of Economic History, University of the Balearic Islands
Marco Veronese Passarella, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Leeds
Joel Rabinovich, Lecturer in International Political Economy, King's College London
Danilo Spinola, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Birmingham City University
Bruno Bonizzi, Senior Lecturer, University of Hertfordshire
Eduardo Strachman, Associate Professor of Economics, São Paulo State University
Esra Ugurlu, Lecturer in Economics, University of Leeds
Ryan Woodgate, Research Associate and Lecturer in Macroeconomics and International Economics, Berlin School of Economics and Law
Paul Hudson, Retired Environmental Economist, University of York
Dominik Leusder, Economist, London School of Economics and Political Science
Kalim Siddiqui, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Huddersfield
Michael Edwards, Hon Professor, Economics of Planning, UCL
Jeff Powell, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Greenwich
Carolyn Sissoko, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of the West of England
Annina Kaltenbrunner, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Leeds
Ben Tippet, Lecturer, University of Greenwich
Neil Lancastle, Senior Lecturer, De Montfort University
Simon Szreter, Professor of History and Public Policy, University of Cambridge
Christina Wolf, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Hertfordshire
Alberto Botta, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Greenwich
Muhammad Ali Nasir, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Leeds
Andrew Trigg, Professor of Economics, The Open University
Devin Rafferty, Associate Professor in Economics & Finance, St. Peter's University
Simon Mohun, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, Queen Mary University of London
Emanuele Citera, Assistant Professor of Economics, St. Lawrence University
Jean Luc De Meulemeester, Professor, Université Libre de Bruxelles
James Meadway, Director, Progressive Economy Forum
Serena Merrino, Lecturer, University College London
Chris Marme, Professor of Economics, Augustana College
Lea Steininger, Economist, UC Berkeley; WU Vienna
Sunanda Sen, Retired Economics Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Ewa Karwowski, Lecturer in Development Economics , King's College London
Mary Wrenn, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of the West of England
Guglielmo Forges Davanzati, Professor of the History of Economic Thought, University of Salento
Satoshi Miyamura, Senior Lecturer in the Economy of Japan, SOAS University of London
Sara Maioli, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Newcastle University
Livio Di Matteo, Professor of Economics, Lakehead University
Howard Reed, Director, Landman Economics
David Barlow, Lecturer in Economics, Newcastle University Business School
Dr Guy Standing FAcSS, Professorial Research Associate, SOAS University of London
Carlos Oya, Professor of Political Economy of Development, SOAS University of London
Jonathan Di John, Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, SOAS University of London
Mick Moore, Professorial Fellow, International Centre for Tax and Development
Jane Lethbridge, Associate Professor in Public Policy, University of Greenwich
Andrew Denis, Emeritus Fellow, City University of London
Ilhan Dögüs, Independent Economist
