From City AM:
Figures published today by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) showed the cost of tax relief on pension contributions rose by £950m over the last year to £41bn.
Other tax breaks on pension saving take the total cost to £55bn, Webb said, a figure the Treasury will be studying "with great interest".
OK, here's another figure that the Treasury ought to be studying "with great interest", from The Telegraph*:
Borrowing in the 2017/18 financial year to date is now running at £50bn, down from £56.7bn at the same stage in 2016/17 and the lowest to-date total since 2007.
The figure means Mr Hammond is on course to meet the target set by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the country’s fiscal watchdog, of borrowing £49.9bn in the 12 months to the end of March 2018 - equivalent to 2.4pc of gross domestic product.
I know that it's not big and not clever to compare random items of taxation and spending; or to match the total deficit with individual items of spending (or tax breaks, or subsidies), but it puts it in perspective. We could, in theory, more or less eliminate the current annual deficit by getting rid of tax breaks for pensions (more accurately, people with spare income, more accurately than that, higher earners, and even more accurately than that, subsidies for the lads in The City who soak it all up in fees, charges and commissions).
Broadest shoulders, and all that?
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* Particularly sick-making is that the article makes great play of this factoid:
Public sector borrowing in December dropped by £2.5bn, much more than had been expected, thanks to a £1.2bn credit from the EU. It was the smallest December borrowing figure since 2000.
As if this £1.2 bn were a) some sort of triumph by the UK government and not just a drop in the ocean compared to b) UK deficits/spending or c) the massive overall drain that the EU is/will be or d) a completely made-up number.
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