Chancellor picks Richard Hughes as next head of budget watchdog OBR
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has nominated an International Monetary Fund (IMF) adviser and former government as the next head of the UK’s budget watchdog.
Richard Hughes, who currently also works as a research associate at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said he was “honoured” to be picked as the next chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The OBR is in charge of monitoring the government’s performance against its taxing and spending rules. It also has executive responsibility for producing the official UK economic and fiscal forecasts.
It made waves in April when it said the UK economy could shrink by 35 per cent in the second quarter of the year due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Current chair Robert Chote is due to step down later this year when his second term ends. He became chair when the OBR was created by then-chancellor George Osborne in 2010.
Sunak said: “I would like to thank Robert Chote for the excellent work he and his team have done over the past ten years.”
He said it is “essential” that “we retain our complete commitment to strong public finances and responsible management of tax-payers’ money”.
“So I am delighted to nominate Richard Hughes to be the next chair of the OBR.”
Hughes will have to be approved by the Treasury Committee of MPs in parliament, which scrutinises the Treasury’s work.
Hughes said: “I am honoured to be nominated to be the next chair of the OBR. It is both a great privilege and a tremendous responsibility.”
“I would like to thank the current chair Robert Chote, Charlie Bean, Andy King and the staff of the OBR for all the work they have done.”
“Like them, I am committed to upholding the OBR’s well-deserved reputation for objective, transparent, and rigorous analysis of economic and fiscal developments.”
Hughes has held various roles in government policy and economics. He was a division chief in the fiscal affairs department of the IMF, the international lender of last resort.
He has also served as director of the Fiscal Group consultancy and acting chief economist at the Treasury.