Government borrowing falls by more than a third in December

UK government borrowing was significantly lower last month, due to an increase in tax income outweighing spending, official figures show.

In December government borrowing – the difference between public spending and tax income – was £11.6bn, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

It is down £7.1bn – 38% – from the previous December, and lower than what many economists had predicted.

Tom Davies, Deputy Director for the ONS public service division, said the fall was a result of “receipts being up strongly on last year whereas spending is only modestly higher”.

Despite the annual fall, the December 2025 figure was the tenth highest for the month since records began in 1993, without adjusting for inflation.

And it remains higher than December 2023, when borrowing stood at £8.1bn.

The figures show the government received £7.7bn more – an 8.9% rise – in taxes in December 2025 than it did in the same month in 2024.

This comprised increases in income tax, corporation tax, VAT and National Insurance contributions (NIC), the ONS said – with changes to the rate of NIC paid by employers coming into effect in April last year.

According to provisional estimates, borrowing over the financial year to December totalled £140.4bn, about £300m lower than the same period in 2024, the ONS said.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, said the government was “stabilising the economy, reducing borrowing, rooting out waste in the public sector”.

He said: “Last year we doubled our headroom and we are forecast to cut borrowing more than any other G7 country with borrowing set to be the lowest this year since before the pandemic.”