UK government finances show £8.8bn surplus - meaning targets will be met this year

As the Office for National Statistics (ONS), UK government finances had a surplus of £8.8bn in January - the highest figure for seven years and higher than the revised £6.5bn reported for January 2014.

A better than expected rise in tax receipts means the government is on course to meet its borrowing target for 2015, says BBC, which is is £91.3bn.

The surplus means borrowing has fallen to £74bn in the financial year to date, a fall of £6bn compared with last year.

Traditionally, January's public sector finance data shows a surplus, as it includes tax receipts from those who submit self-assessment forms.

Chancellor George Osborne said: "In a week of economic milestones, today we learn that January saw the largest monthly surplus in the public finances since the crisis, putting us on track to meet our borrowing forecasts and halve the deficit as a share of GDP this year."

However, the Labour party considered that the figures were distorted by bonuses at the top which were delayed from last year to this year to take advantage of the top rate tax cut.

"These figures show George Osborne has broken his promise to balance the books by this year. This government is now set to have borrowed over £200bn more than planned," said Chris Leslie, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury.

Revisions

The ONS said self-assessed income tax receipts were £12.3bn in January, an increase of £1.7bn, or 15.6%, compared with January 2014. At the same time, Treasury revisions to government spending showed departments spent £1.5bn less in the year to date.

Other revisions showed an increase of £0.5bn in VAT receipts and £0.4bn in other tax receipts, all helped to reduce government borrowing.

A £2.9bn payment to the European Commission budget, which skewed last month's borrowing figures, was reduced by £1.2bn in January to £1.7bn as part of an accounting procedure agreed with the Europe Union (EU). That agreement means the £2.9bn will eventually be reduced by existing refunds and rebates from the EU down to about £850m.