Table of Contents

Foreword

1. Economic Performance

2. Macroeconomic Policy

3. Public Expenditure

4.  Tax Policy

5. Scotland: Saving the Union

6. Europe: the ins and outs

7. Financial Regulation and the City of London

8. Climate change: the road to Net Zero

9. The Treasury’s changing shape

10. Leadership

11. Trouble ahead

Notes

About the Author

Howard Davies is Chairman of the NatWest Group and a Professor at Sciences Po, Paris.

Reviews

"A thoughtful, gossipy and highly readable account of recent British economic history, Howard Davies’s survey covers all the big Treasury issues and personalities of the past twenty-five years, with especially interesting insights on financial regulation and the Treasury’s post-Brexit policy challenges."
Ed Balls, former Education Secretary and Shadow Chancellor "These are fascinating, personal assessments of the performance of our Chancellors by someone particularly well qualified to make them."
Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary and Permanent Secretary of HM Treasury

"Witty and essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Treasury."
House Magazine

"Howard Davies has written a succinct and fascinating assessment of the Treasury’s crucial role since 1997. How the department responds to the challenges of the future is likely to determine the UK’s prospects for decades to come.”
Literary Review

“A succinct and fascinating assessment of the Treasury’s crucial role.”
David Gauke, former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

“This insider’s view […] manages to be both authoritative and quite cheeky.”
Ferdinand Mount, The Spectator

“Davies is kinder to the Treasury than I would be. Nevertheless, he recognises that trouble lies ahead: political and economic realities do not look friendly to the belief in free markets and fiscal discipline that guides this powerful institution.”
Martin Wolf, The Financial Times

“It’s a “fascinating” story, covering many challenges and changes.”
The Weekly

“informative and entertaining”
William A. Allen,The Society of Professional Economists

"a source of great insight"
Craig Berry, University College London