Changes in government spending over time

The Chancellor's review of public spending tomorrow will generate a wealth of articles and analysis - here is a nice one to start with. The BBC website has looked at how the proportion of total spending which goes to each department has changed since 2004, when government spending was last 40.5% of national income: this is the figure that the Chancellor is aiming at in 2017-8 if the government reaches its targets, and is a stark contrast to the 47.4% reached in 2009-10.

There is some very interesting data here, which highlights the increasing proportion needed for health and for pensioner benefits, as well as debt servicing, and hence the need for cuts elsewhere. There are some handy charts and graphs, as well as look back at 1953-4 when health spending accounted for 7% of government spending and pensioner benefits just 5%. It may help to explain why it is that the government has little room for manoeuvre when it tries to cut its spending. This is explained a bit further in a second article, examining the spending cuts and where we are so far with them. Those who were at the Economics Teachers National Conference yesterday will recognise the distinction between the 'inevitable' autonomous spending on Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) and the discretionary budgets set for individual departments, which are known as Departmental Expenditure Limits, or DEL, which was described by Ed Conway as a reason for the government having less and less control of their spending as time goes on.