Labour needs to come clean on the ‘black hole’ claims - Yorkshire Post Letters

I just wish that the Labour government would come 'clean' rather than keep saying 'let's be clear' about the inherited black hole.

The independent Office of Budgetary Responsibility was set up in 2010 by the Conservative government and publishes two public finance reports each financial year in March, at the end of the public financial year, and an interim report in November when departmental ministers start to prepare for the budgets for the next financial year.

This information is open for public viewing online, so why has the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, MP for Leeds in West Yorkshire, said that this 'black hole' has been a surprise and the previous government administration has hidden things?

If we believe her then the government's Audit Commission has not been fulfilling its duties to the taxpayer.

The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) provides Economic and fiscal forecasting over a five year period.

It also evaluates performance against these forecasts, but the Treasury and Secretary of States for individual departments needs to feed this information to the OBR.

Population patterns figures from the Office of National Statistics also contribute and support by working with the OBR.

Working back very few local authorities file the end of year budget performance by the government deadline of May 31.

I agree that some local authority Director of Finance will say it is more challenging than years ago due to greater demands for all fields' of social care from special needs, children and adults social care which is vastly under funded and population increases, part of which is illegal immigrants who need to be housed and looked after by the state whilst their applications are being assessed.

The boom in house building will put more pressure on local authorities' chief executive officers to provide more schools and minor treatment centres feeding into hospitals, not to mention more pressures on domestic waste collection and disposal.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer may have worked in the private financial sector before becoming a Labour MP but she, like the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, needs to convince the public that they are 'really' accounting for every pound spent in the public sector and that taxpayers are receiving value for money on this journey to grow Great Britain. A five year term is not a long time for Labour to prove what they have promised in the pre-election manifesto.