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Fiscal Responsibility Bill

No, I do not agree with the hon. Lady. She quoted HSBC. Let me quote what was said by a representative of HSBC:""The greater the uncertainty over fiscal consolidation, the greater the danger that businesses and households will become risk averse...leading to atrophying economic activity"." It should be remembered that the Bill was part of what the Government published at the time of the pre-Budget report. According to Goldman Sachs,""The empirical evidence from the UK and elsewhere suggests that successful fiscal consolidations share two features: i) decisive action and ii) a focus on cutting public expenditure rather than tax increases…The plans laid out by the UK Government in the PBR have neither feature and, as such, do not represent a credible fiscal consolidation"." According to Citibank,""The PBR fails to establish a credible and detailed route back to fiscal sustainability for the UK in coming years"." I could go on.