Emergency Budget Spending Cuts

The plans contained in the Budget allow for 77% of the measures taken to reduce borrowing to come from spending cuts and 23% from tax increases. This is a slight variance from the original 80% to 20% target, but the admission reflects George Osborne’s desire “not to hide hard choices from the British people or bury them in the small print of the Budget documents.”

There are significant cuts outlined in the Budget affecting many sections of the community, but with the aim of ensuring that the pain is spread fairly. In fact, the Chancellor made the point that this is a progressive Budget—one that places the burden more on the better off, than those less able to make sacrifices. So many in the past have proved regressive, that is where the worse off share a disproportionately large part of the burden.