How to fix the fiscal rules
From IFS Zooms In: The Economy by Institute for Fiscal Studies
February 19, 2026 · 48 min · Season 7 · Episode 6
About this episode
The episode discusses the implications of fiscal rules on economic policy and proposes an alternative approach for assessing public finances.
Fiscal rules can sound technical, but they shape some of the biggest choices in economic policy: what we spend today, what we invest for tomorrow, and how we share costs across generations. In this episode of IFS Zooms In, Helen is joined by Ben Zaranko to unpack why governments use fiscal rules, what the UK’s current rules are designed to do, and why - despite repeated promises - debt has continued to ratchet upwards. They discuss how a narrow, pass–fail approach has encouraged a fixation on “headroom”, contributed to last-minute policy changes driven by forecast movements, and crowded out wider debate about long-run sustainability. They then set out an alternative approach: a clearer fiscal strategy at the start of each parliament, assessed against a broader dashboard of indicators rather than a single bright-line test, using a traffic-light style system to support a more transparent and nuanced public conversation about the state of the public finances. Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/podcasts-explainers-and-calculators/podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
People in this episode
Host: Helen
Guest: Ben Zaranko
Topics covered
- fiscal rules
- economic policy
- government spending
- debt management
- public finances
- long-run sustainability
Keywords
- fiscal rules
- economic policy
- debt
- UK government
- public finances
- sustainability
- policy changes
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Institute for Fiscal Studies, IFS
Places: UK
More episodes of IFS Zooms In: The Economy
- Inequality: what does Britain really think? · June 11, 2026 · 48 min
- How unequal is Britain? · June 4, 2026 · 48 min
- The tough fiscal reality facing the UK government · May 28, 2026 · 47 min
- Why is UK electricity so expensive? · May 21, 2026 · 50 min
- What do councils actually do? · May 14, 2026 · 42 min
- The tough choices facing Wales’s next government · April 15, 2026 · 45 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the IFS Zooms In: The Economy podcast page.