Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 3, 2026
2 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleUK Chancellor Rachel Reeves said on March 3, 2026 that the Office for Budget Responsibility’s updated forecasts show the fiscal headroom for 2029/30 has increased to £23.6 billion from nearly £22 billion in November, offering greater leeway despite recent market volatility.
LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Britain's government has a bigger margin for error for meeting its main fiscal target at the end of the decade, finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Tuesday, citing new forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The government's expected tax revenues were due to stand at 23.6 billion pounds ($31.4 billion) above projected day-to-day spending in the 2029/30 fiscal year, Reeves said in a budget update speech to parliament.
At the time of her last full budget announcement in November, the so-called fiscal headroom was estimated to be almost 22 billion pounds.
The OBR's forecasts were made before this week's surge in borrowing costs in financial markets triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran which has pushed up energy costs and could fuel inflation.
But Reeves said they did include spending commitments made since the last budget.
($1 = 0.7509 pounds)
(Writing by William Schomberg and Kate Holton; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
The UK government expects a fiscal headroom of £23.6 billion for the 2029/30 fiscal year, according to the latest OBR forecasts.
The current fiscal headroom of £23.6 billion is higher than the nearly £22 billion estimated in November.
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